Knowledge, attitudes, and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice among lactating mothers in Noakhali, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Mothers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward exclusive breastfeeding are crucial to both child and mother’s health and wellbeing. Hence, This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of exclusive breastfeeding among lactating mothers as well as the predictors of their exclusive breastfeeding practice. METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study included 397 mothers having infants aged 0–6 months who sought care at Noakhali Sadar Upazila, Noakhali, Bangladesh. A field-tested and validated Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) questionnaire was utilized to collect information from participants. RESULTS: Of those evaluated; 29.0% of mothers could not define exclusive breastfeeding accurately, 11.3% and 59.3% did not know the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for babies and mothers, respectively. More than half (51.4%) of the mothers reported feeling good about exclusive breastfeeding for six months, did not find difficulties to breastfeed exclusively for six months (39.5%) and on-demand (58.2%). The mothers had an overall favorable attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding; however, 38.3% of mothers did not exclusively breastfeed their children. Literate mothers tended to exclusively breastfeed more (AOR: 3.06, 95% CI: 1.01–9.32; P = 0.049) than illiterate mothers. Mothers having one baby were more likely to breastfeed exclusively (AOR: 3.07, 95% CI: 1.21–7.78; P = 0.018) than mothers having more than one baby. Moreover, mothers with higher knowledge and favorable attitude had more than two times (AOR: 2.58, 95% CI: 1.315.07; P = 0.006) and forty-three times (AOR: 43.18, 95% CI: 21.513–86.66; P < 0.001) the higher tendency of exclusive breastfeeding compared to others. CONCLUSION: Despite having satisfactory knowledge and attitude, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers was poor. We recommend that interventions must be focused more on ensuring exclusive breastfeeding practice among mothers in addition to improving their knowledge and attitudes.