A baseline assessment of the knowledge, attitude, and practices of exclusive breastfeeding among women enrolled in a cluster randomized trial in Anambra State Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding has great benefits for both the mother and the child. Few studies have been carried out on interventions to improve Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) practice by childbearing mothers. No study has formulated and/or implemented a hospital-based maternal counseling guide intervention to improve EBF practice. This baseline study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of EBF on mothers who were enrolled in antenatal clinics for a cluster randomized trial and the disparity in the knowledge of EBF based on lactation, age, sex, and source of income. Methods: We formulated a hospital-based counseling guide on exclusive breastfeeding, which is under implementation by prenatal and nursing mothers, to promote EBF practice in the study area. A cross-sectional study was conducted in two hospitals randomly selected from twelve hospitals in Anambra State. The study was among pregnant women who were in their second trimester. The data collection took place from March to April 2022. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square. The test of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The control and the intervention arms had an equal number of enrolees (144) each and more than half of the participants were between the ages of 23 – 32 years. The majority of the participants showed adequate knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding as over 90% knew that EBF is important and capable of improving their baby's immunity. The participants demonstrated a positive attitude to exclusive breastfeeding and they had a significantly high level of practice of daily consumption of galactagogues. The study suggested that the majority did not practice breast milk extraction mainly because the process of extraction is painful and some do not know how to carry out the extraction. Conclusion: The mothers have the requisite knowledge of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding to their infants and themselves. However, they do not practice EBF. Interventions to improve EBF practice should focus on educating mothers on proper breast milk extraction and storage techniques.