Cargando…

Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) have been examined in many parts of the world. Considering the socio-cultural dynamics and the few research studies in Ghana, the factors that hinder and predict EBF practice in other countries may be different in the Ghanaia...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah, Bam, Victoria, Asante, Ernest, Lomotey, Alberta Yemotsoo, Yeboah, Samuel, Owusu, Haim Acquah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28286540
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13006-017-0104-2
_version_ 1782513344740065280
author Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah
Bam, Victoria
Asante, Ernest
Lomotey, Alberta Yemotsoo
Yeboah, Samuel
Owusu, Haim Acquah
author_facet Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah
Bam, Victoria
Asante, Ernest
Lomotey, Alberta Yemotsoo
Yeboah, Samuel
Owusu, Haim Acquah
author_sort Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) have been examined in many parts of the world. Considering the socio-cultural dynamics and the few research studies in Ghana, the factors that hinder and predict EBF practice in other countries may be different in the Ghanaian setting. The study therefore sought to assess the challenges and predictors of EBF among mothers attending a child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out between January and March, 2015 to elicit information from 240 mothers who were sampled using simple random sampling technique. A validated structured questionnaire was used in collecting data on participants’ socio-demographic characteristics and reported breastfeeding practices. Participants’ breastfeeding challenges were rated on a Likert scale from 1 (not at all), 2 (mild), 3 (moderate), 4 (severe) to 5 (unbearable). In this study, EBF refers to birth of the infants up to six months. RESULTS: The top three breastfeeding challenges of mothers were: belief that breast milk alone was not sufficient in meeting their babies’ nutritional needs [mean 3.43 (standard deviation {SD} 1.35)], short maternity leave period [mean 3.41 (SD 1.29)], and socio-cultural pressure to introduce water and artificial feeds [mean 3.39 (SD 1.28)]. Independent predictors of EBF were: infant’s age [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 0.82 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.71, 0.95)], and self-employment [AOR 2.67 (95% CI 1.11, 6.41)]. CONCLUSION: Mothers are confronted with numerous EBF challenges both at the individual and societal levels, and stakeholders need to consider these in order to support breastfeeding mothers to maximize outcomes. Reviewing the labour laws on Ghana’s maternity leave to accommodate an extended maternity leave in addition to the employee’s annual leave could further improve EBF practice rates. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13006-017-0104-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5343322
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53433222017-03-10 Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah Bam, Victoria Asante, Ernest Lomotey, Alberta Yemotsoo Yeboah, Samuel Owusu, Haim Acquah Int Breastfeed J Research BACKGROUND: The challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) have been examined in many parts of the world. Considering the socio-cultural dynamics and the few research studies in Ghana, the factors that hinder and predict EBF practice in other countries may be different in the Ghanaian setting. The study therefore sought to assess the challenges and predictors of EBF among mothers attending a child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out between January and March, 2015 to elicit information from 240 mothers who were sampled using simple random sampling technique. A validated structured questionnaire was used in collecting data on participants’ socio-demographic characteristics and reported breastfeeding practices. Participants’ breastfeeding challenges were rated on a Likert scale from 1 (not at all), 2 (mild), 3 (moderate), 4 (severe) to 5 (unbearable). In this study, EBF refers to birth of the infants up to six months. RESULTS: The top three breastfeeding challenges of mothers were: belief that breast milk alone was not sufficient in meeting their babies’ nutritional needs [mean 3.43 (standard deviation {SD} 1.35)], short maternity leave period [mean 3.41 (SD 1.29)], and socio-cultural pressure to introduce water and artificial feeds [mean 3.39 (SD 1.28)]. Independent predictors of EBF were: infant’s age [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 0.82 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.71, 0.95)], and self-employment [AOR 2.67 (95% CI 1.11, 6.41)]. CONCLUSION: Mothers are confronted with numerous EBF challenges both at the individual and societal levels, and stakeholders need to consider these in order to support breastfeeding mothers to maximize outcomes. Reviewing the labour laws on Ghana’s maternity leave to accommodate an extended maternity leave in addition to the employee’s annual leave could further improve EBF practice rates. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13006-017-0104-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-03-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5343322/ /pubmed/28286540 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13006-017-0104-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Diji, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah
Bam, Victoria
Asante, Ernest
Lomotey, Alberta Yemotsoo
Yeboah, Samuel
Owusu, Haim Acquah
Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title_full Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title_short Challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in Ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
title_sort challenges and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the child welfare clinic at a regional hospital in ghana: a descriptive cross-sectional study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28286540
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13006-017-0104-2
work_keys_str_mv AT dijiabigailkusiamponsah challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy
AT bamvictoria challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy
AT asanteernest challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy
AT lomoteyalbertayemotsoo challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy
AT yeboahsamuel challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy
AT owusuhaimacquah challengesandpredictorsofexclusivebreastfeedingamongmothersattendingthechildwelfareclinicataregionalhospitalinghanaadescriptivecrosssectionalstudy