Factors associated with exclusive breast feeding among formally employed women seeking maternal and child health services at Kenyatta national Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Kenyan prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding is currrently at 60% which is a slight decline from 61% in 2014 and still falls short of the World Health Organization recommendation for global coverage. At Kenyatta National Hospital, 48% of the women with children attending the Mother and Child Health (MCH) clinic are in formal employment with only 29% of its health professionals exclusively breastfeeding while 51.2% of mothers with newborn babies have good breastfeeding practices with majority intending to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. A better understanding of the factors that influence EBF is important in order to promote appropriate infant feeding practices especially among the formally employed women in contribution to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals. This study sought to determine factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding among formally employed women seeking Maternal and Child Health services at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). The study objectives were to; establish the maternal, family, and workplace – related factors that associated with exclusive breastfeeding among formally employed women seeking MCH services at KNH, Kenya. A cross-sectional study design was employed which targeted 195 mothers with children below 6 months out of approximately 688 formally employed women seeking MCH services at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Systematic Random Sampling technique was used. The study employed questionnaires to collect data on maternal, family and workplace related factors and how they associate with exclusive breastfeeding. Data from questionnaires was cleaned, coded and entered into IBM SPSS version 23 for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the population characteristics of maternal, family and workplace related factors and their association with exclusive breastfeeding among formally employed women seeking MCH services at KNH was computed using Pearson‟s chi square at 95% confidence level. A P-value of < 0.05 was utilized as the statistical significance criterion. The study found that slightly over half 53.5% (n=104) are classified as having exclusively breastfed while 46.5% (n=91) are classified as non-exclusive breastfeeding. The maternal and work-related factors were not significantly associated with exclusive breastfeeding while family related factors were found to be significantly associated with exclusive breastfeeding among formally employed women. The study concludes that the rate of exclusive breastfeeding is significantly associated with family support. The study thus calls for more community sensitization on breast-feeding and the need for employers to strengthen their measures to support breastfeeding employees.