Exclusive Breastfeeding and its associated factors among mothers of children aged 6 to 23 months in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, Nepal.
Only 37.6% of Nepali mothers practiced exclusive breastfeeding through 6 months
Exclusive Breastfeeding and its associated factors among mothers of children aged 6 to 23 months in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, Nepal.
Exclusive breastfeeding (exclusive breastfeeding) is one of the most vital interventions to promote child's growth, survival and maternal health, yet the rate of exclusive breastfeeding remains suboptimal in many developing nations, leading to increase in infant and childhood mortality and morbidity.
This study aimed to assess the practice of exclusive breastfeeding and its associated factors among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, Nepal.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 202 mothers with children aged 6-23 months in Biratnagar, Nepal, employing a Population Proportionate to Size (Proportionate to Size) technique for sampling.
Just over a third of infants were exclusively breastfed, below recommended practice.
Among 202 mothers (Mean ± S.
Most of the participants consumed plain water with milk (53.5%), followed by infant formula milk (35.6%) in early infancy.
One fourth of the participants (21.8%) had adequate knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding.
In multivariable analysis, mothers from joint/extended families (AOR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.23-4.09), illiterate mothers (AOR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.14-7.41), and mothers without breastfeeding problems (AOR = 8.23, 95% CI: 2.97-22.74) were significantly more likely to practice exclusive breastfeeding.
As the breastfeeding problem was significantly hindering breastfeeding practice, counselling on interventions to deal with breastfeeding problems would benefit the improvement in practice.