Facilitators and challenges to exclusive breastfeeding in Belagavi District, Karnataka, India

OBJECTIVE: A primary objective of this study was to identify specific facilitators and challenges around exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in our community in India, from the perspective of breastfeeding mothers and their support networks. METHODS: We conducted eight focus groups incorporating 75 women and their support networks in the Belagavi District, Karnataka State, India. We used a directed content analysis to guide the analysis. RESULTS: The specific facilitator that emerged as a theme, broad support for and knowledge about breastfeeding on the individual, family and community levels, was a seeming contraction to the identified specific challenge, the paradox of the common practice of supplemental feeds. CONCLUSIONS: Despite voicing strong support for and knowledge about EBF, participants were familiar with a variety of supplemental feeding practices in their communities. In place of universal condemnation of all supplemental feeding, policy makers might consider strategies to address the most potentially dangerous of these practices.