Health Workers’ Support for Breastfeeding in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Breastfeeding in Nigeria is universal, and exclusive breastfeeding was introduced in 1992, yet no study has assessed health workers’ support for breastfeeding at the grassroots level. This study assessed health workers’ tangible support for breastfeeding at primary care facilities in Ibadan and factors affecting it, including knowledge of and attitudes toward breastfeeding. Among the 386 workers, there was moderate support for breastfeeding (median score = 15.0, maximum = 20). Following multivariate analysis, young age of worker (20-29 years; odds ratio [OR] = 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2-6.8), more than 5 years of post-training experience (OR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.2-4.4), senior profession (OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.0-4.4), high breastfeeding knowledge scores (OR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.4-4.5), and sufficient opportunities to practice tangible breastfeeding support (OR = 4.3, 95% CI: 2.4-7.7) were found to predict tangible breastfeeding support. Deliberate efforts should be made to incorporate continuing education workshops to better prepare health professionals for their role in providing tangible breastfeeding support at the primary care level.