Knowledge of Mothers Towards Exclusive Breastfeeding in Erbil's Maternity Hospital

Section: Original Articles
Issue
Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020): Volume 8 Issue 2
Published
Jul 1, 2020
Pages
225-237

Abstract

Abstract Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is defined as an infants consumption of human milk with no supplementation of any type (no water, no nonhuman milk, and no foods) except for vitamins, minerals, and medications until six months. Mothers lack of knowledge and experience often results in difficulties in feeding especially when feeding the first time and it may result in the most frustrating experience for the mothers. The main aim of the study was to assess knowledge, towards breastfeeding among mothers attending Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional design was used to achieve study objectives in Erbil Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city, a non-random consecutive sampling method was adopted and the researcher was planned to involve one thousand mothers those were undergoing delivery regardless the type of delivery. Results: 73.7% of mothers have Knowledge about the benefits of BF for mothers and her baby but they dont have good information about EBF about, and 74.1% of mothers thought EBF meaning feeding baby with breast milk and water and 13.7 were EBF. Up to 62% of mothers know that first breastfeeding has to be initiated after 1 hour of child life, half of the mothers know that child needs 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. There was a relation between mother occupation and education level. Conclusion: Mothers have positive knowledge concerning breastfeeding initiation, knowledge regarding the exclusivity of breastfeeding, and duration of breastfeeding. There was a significant statistical association between occupation status and educational level of mothers Keywords: Knowledge, exclusive breastfeeding, Erbil maternity hospital

References

  1. , also in Jordon the study by Altamimi was found that 29.5% of mothers were EBF this result different to this study
  2. , and Alamirew et al from Ethiopia which were 66.9%
  3. , another study also was done in Shqlawa city found that majority of studied population (76.5%) were low educational leve
  4. , another study done by Naseem and Mazher they found the majority 72.8% of mothers in Hail district , northwestern SA had knowledge about BF
  5. .
  6. According to this study more than half of the mothers study thought the duration of EBF was six months according to their understanding .This result were same to another study in Shaqlawa city
  7. .
  8. Mohammed et al from Egypt found that 4.5% of mothers defend weaning correctly and 92,5% defined weaning as breastfeeding cessation
  9. .
  10. The current study showed that more than half of the mothers Knowledge regarding the time of weaning BF varied and the answer were 1-2 years, It is may be because of BF has a religious basis in Islam and it is recommended that the mother suckle her infant for at least two years if possible
  11. .
  12. In this study 36% of mothers started BF within one hour after delivery near Shaker el al (2015) (38.1%) result, and to Multiple Cluster Indicator Survey Six (MICS6) results, they found about32% of Iraqi mothers started BF within one hour after delivery
  13. .
  14. Internationally, sub-optimal breastfeeding still accounts for an assessed 1.4 million deaths in children under five years annually. On average, only around 45% of infants under 6 months are exclusively breastfed globally, and only 38% of children less than six months of age in the developing world are exclusively breastfed and just 39% of those 20-23 months old benefit from the practice of continued breastfeeding
  15. .
  16. Only 13.7% of studied mothers had the right knowledge about the EBF while up to three quarters of them thought that EBF means giving water with BM. Cascone et al found that two thirds of the women in their study in Italy had heard on exclusive breastfeeding (64.6%) and the 71% of them knew that exclusive breastfeeding should be practiced for at least six months
  17. .
  18. This study show that three Quarter of mothers had information about benefits of BF for both infant and mothers. It may because of increased use of communication and mass media. Similar to this result Elmougy et al found that 78.1% of mothers others attending the ANC clinics at Saad Specialist Hospital, and King Fahad University Hospital in Saudi Arabia (SA) aware about benefits and duration of BF
  19. .
  20. This study were indicate that the majority of mothers who participated in the study were of low educational level at same time the occupation of mothers more than three quarter of mothers were house wives, it may be due to that most mother comes from rural area., and on another hand mothers education had a great impact on mothers knowledge of infant and young child feeding . This result was similar to a study done in Erbil city by she found 84.5% of mothers are housewives
  21. .
  22. Good care during pregnancy is important for the health of the mother and the development of the fetus. Pregnancy is a crucial time to promote healthy behaviors and parenting skills. Good ANC links the woman and her family with the formal health system, increases the chance of using skilled health personnel at birth, and contributes to good health through the life cycle. Inadequate care during this time breaks a critical link in the continuum of care and affects both women and babies
  23. . A a study conducted by Mogre et al. among lactating mothers in rural areas in Ghana noted that 74 % of mothers who participated in the study had general knowledge in exclusive breastfeeding
  24. . A non-random consecutive sampling method was adopted and the researcher was planned to involve (1000) mothers those were undergoing delivery at EMTH regardless the type of delivery ( whether normal vaginal delivery or by caesarean section) , and the mothers were interviewed at post-delivery care wards , and all mothers who were accepted to participate in the study were included.
  25. Response rate
  26. The response rate was 81% as about 190 mothers refused to participate in the study (all of them are undergoing cesarean section), the acceptable response rate for survey studies is 80-85%
  27. . Also, a study conducted by Ghana by Dun-Dery & Laar found that nearly all mothers (98%) who participate in that study had adequate knowledge about EBF
  28. . But Altamimi found in a study done in south of Jordan that 73.5% of working mothers are college graduated
  29. . In our study about two-thirds of the studied mothers were resident in rural areas while Majority (63.5%) of the respondents in Alamirew at al study were urban dwellers
  30. . Information on EBF according to mothers was acquired through their healthcare providers through antenatal care programs
  31. . Many studies conducted on EBF in the last years have shown progressive improvement in maternal knowledge in EBF among mothers. A study by Oche et al recorded a rate of 54 % of knowledge in EBF among mothers
  32. . That it may be most of mothers complete their study then marred. This implies that, most of the respondents were adults who were fully developed in their biological makeup (matured) that found to be good enough in terms of procreation and childcare
  33. . The advanced of international breastfeeding rates in the last decade about 39 percent of children
  34. According to the general characteristics of early breast-feeding, it is exposed higher in central and southern Iraq, the highest percentage than in the Kurdistan region and also higher in rural compared to urban areas is higher when natural childbirth compared to caesarean birth and is reduced with high education all mothers
  35. . The main aim of the study was to assess Knowledge, towards breastfeeding among mothers attending Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city.
  36. Methods and materials
  37. A cross sectional study was used to study the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers towards exclusive Breastfeeding in Erbil's Maternity Teaching Hospital (EMTH).This hospital is the unique public hospital inside Erbil city and it provide obstetrical and gynecological services for the population inside the city and to the rural areas around the city. The majority deliveries in Erbil city occurred in EMTH and the minority were taken place either at homes by Trained Birth Attendance or at few private hospitals
  38. . The WHO recommends that pregnant women should have at least four visits to care centers or health facilities. A study done by UNICEF and Iraqi health authorities found that the coverage of pregnant women during pregnancy is relatively high in Iraq, where 88%of pregnant women have at least one visit and 68% of pregnant women who received health care through at least four visits to any health care facility
  39. . Up to half of the mothers within 20-29 years group and the mean age was 30.9 years. This result was similar to Al-Azzawi and Shaker et al studies in Erbil and Shaqlawa cities which were 61% of same age[11-12], Goyal et al in Libya which were 63.2%
  40. . While Adhikari et al found about 66.4% of Nepalese mothers started BF early
  41. . While the number of children receiving the smallest amount of food diversity increases with the increase in the education mothers the old rages, especially 18 months and above, as well as in urban associated with the countryside
  42. .In our study more than half of mothers didnt receive ANC it might be due to most mothers were illiterate and comes from rural areas and they dont have enough information about importance of antenatal visit , while Malema and Matlala found about 99% of mothers in n the Mahwelereng local area of Limpopo Province, South Africa received ANC
  43. Anaesthesia department, Medical Technical Institute, Erbil Polytechnic University.
  44. Assistant Professor of Community Medicine, Shekhan Technical College of Health, Duhok olytechnic University. Corresponding author: [emailprotected]
  45. but another study in Ghana by Nukpezah et al had different which were 27.7% gives EBF for 6 months
  46. Knowledge of Mothers Towards Exclusive Breastfeeding in Erbil's Maternity Hospital
  47. Masood Abdulkareem Abdulrahman
  48. Zara Ahmed Saleh

Authors

Masood Abdulkareem Abdulrahman

Assistant Professor of Community Medicine, Shekhan Technical College of Health, Duhok Polytechnic University. Corresponding author: [email protected]

Zara Ahmed Saleh

Anaesthesia department, Medical Technical Institute, Erbil Polytechnic University.

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