The effects of mother’s education on achieving exclusive breastfeeding in Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Even though the Indonesian government have set regulations for maintaining exclusive breastfeeding practices, the coverage remains low. The study aims to analyze the effects of mother’s education level on the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in Indonesia. METHODS: This study used data from the 2017 Nutrition Status Monitoring Survey. It covered data of 53,528 children under 5 years old (7–59 months) as the samples. Variables included exclusive breastfeeding status, mother’s education level, mother’s age, marital status, employment status, gender, residence, under five’s age and gender. A binary logistics regression was performed in the final test. RESULTS: Mothers who graduated from elementary school were 1.167 times more likely to perform exclusive breastfeeding compared to mothers who never attended schools. Additionally, those who graduated from junior high school had 1.203 times possibilities to give exclusive breastfeeding compared to mothers without educational records. While, mothers who graduated from high school were 1.177 times more likely to perform exclusive breastfeeding compared to those without educational records. Mothers who graduated from tertiary education had 1.203 times more possibilities to perform exclusive breastfeeding compared to mothers who were never enrolled to schools. Other variables also became affecting predictors on exclusive breastfeeding, such as mother’s age, mother’s employment status, child’s age, and residence. CONCLUSIONS: The mother’s education level positively affects exclusive breastfeeding practice in Indonesia.