BREASTFEEDING PRACTICE AMONG WOMEN ATTENDING PRIMARY HEALTH CENTERS IN RIYADH

OBJECTIVES: (1) To study the patterns of breastfeeding of last children, duration, factors and reasons for it. (2) To study the factors affecting breastfeeding among mothers who are breastfeeding and the reasons for continuing or failure to continue, at the primary health care centers (PHC) in Riyadh. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing 1000 questionnaires in 10 PHC centers. The breastfeeding practices were categorized on WHO terms. RESULTS: Most of the studied last children (95.1%) were breastfed. Exclusive breastfeeding rate from birth was 62.9%, for up to four months was 13.2% and for six months was 3.3% . The mixed breastfeeding rate from birth was 32.2%, up to age of four months was 53.1% and for children more than six months old it was 20.3%. The mean age of the introduction of solid food was 4.6 ±1.4 months. Artificial feeding rate was 4.9% at birth , 30.3% up to four months and 49.7% for children more than six months old. The most frequent reason for the continuation of breastfeeding was Quranic instruction (55.1%) and its failure was inadequate milk (60.8%). The exclusive breastfeeding and the duration of breastfeeding had statistically significant association with the mothers’ residence, marital status, number of children alive, occupation and the level of education. In addition, there was significant association of exclusive breastfeeding and the non-introduction of artificial feeding at the hospital but not with health education on breastfeeding at the centers . RECOMMENDATIONS: To promote the education of mothers on breastfeeding, promote the training of PHC center health professionals and modify the policy of hospitals in the Kingdom on the feeding of newborns.