ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to ascertain the knowledge, attitude, perception and practice of exclusive breastfeeding and food safety and hygiene among nursing mothers attending post-natal care in Umuahia South LGA, Abia State. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study using a well-structured, validated and pre-tested questionnaire. The sample size comprised of 348 nursing mothers with infants’ aged 0-6months attending post-natal clinic in Umuahia South Local government area of Abia State. Data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23.0, descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the findings revealed that a good number of the nursing mothers (39.9%) were aged between 31-35 and few (14.4%) were above the age of 36 years, some (34.2%) were formally educated but only up to the secondary level while 36.1% of the nursing mothers completed HND studies and few (29.7%) completed BSc studies indicating that members of the study population are literate. Most (69.3%) of the nursing mothers are Christian, 58.1% were self-employed engaging in different forms of trade, less than half (47%) had about 4-6 children. Majority (98.4%) understood the concept of exclusive breastfeeding with 84.4% agreeing to the nutritional adequacy of breastmilk and its thirst-quenching abilities; majority (93.9%) were positive that exclusive breastfeeding strengthens the infant’s immune system. Most (55.3%) practice exclusive breastfeeding. A grand mean of 3.69 was obtained against the benchmark of 3.0 indicating a positive perception and attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding. Furthermore, majority (228) had appreciable good knowledge, attitude, perception and practice of food safety and the entire population (313) had good knowledge, attitude, perception and practice of hygiene with a grand mean of 4.29. Findings revealed that there is a significant association between the knowledge, attitude, perception and practice of both exclusive breastfeeding and food safety and hygiene. The study recommended that there is need to pay more attention to the health and nutrition of infants to minimize growth retardation, infant morbidity and mortality; more research can be done in a larger setting to assess infant and young child feeding behaviors as this will have better impact and motivate the implementation of interventions; various bodies including individuals, families, hospitals and health centers should place pictorial representation of the importance of effective hygienic practices to enable nursing mothers have access to information concerning healthy living.