Breastfeeding Practices Among Infants and Young Children in Bushenyi, Uganda: Influence of Maternal Knowledge and Occupation

Breastfeeding has proven to be a reference standard for infants’ and young children nutrition worldwide. Improvement of breastfeeding rates is important if lives of under-five age children are to be saved yearly. In Uganda, malnutrition remains a serious health problem contributing significantly to both infant and child mortality and this has been attributed to low levels of breast feeding practices. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of knowledge and occupation of mothers on breastfeeding practices of infants and young children in Bushenyi, Uganda. A heath facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among lactating mothers who attended Kyabugimbi health center IV, Ishaka Adventist Hospital and Kampala International University-Teaching Hospital (KIU-TH). Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire from 346 participants. Majority (87.6%) of the participants had knowledge of the right time to initiate breast milk, majority (87.3%) and (93.9%) had good knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding duration respectively. Majority (87.6%) of the mothers initiated breast milk within 1 hour of child birth. Only 31.9% of children above 6 months were exclusively breastfed. Majority (81.9%) of the mothers practiced complementary breastfeeding for at least 2 years. House wives have 42% [OR: 1.42, 95% (1.31-3.88) x2=0.79] higher odds to practice breastfeeding while mothers whose occupation is studentship have 2 times [OR: 2.04, 95% (1.31-3.88) x2=1.767] higher odds to practice breastfeeding optimally. Young children in Bushenyi district are at risk of malnutrition and childhood diseases as breastfeeding practices especially exclusive breastfeeding do not meet the national and WHO target and recommendation given that only three in ten children were exclusively breastfed. A combination of rural health outreaches and health education could be a possible option for the improvement of breastfeeding practices in the region.