ABSTRACT

The study was designed to assess the determinants of exclusive and non-exclusive breastfeeding practices among nursing mothers in Ekwusigo L.G.A of Anambra. A total of 239 respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to determine the respondents socio-economic characteristic and infant care practices.  Anthropometrics (weight for age, height for age and BMI for age indices) status of the infants were also assessed. World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standard charts were used to classify the anthropometric indices. Results on the socio-economic characteristics revealed that most(51.9%) of the nursing mothers were between 21-40 years (51.9%), some (40.6%) were between 21-30 and a few (6.7%) were between 41-50 years of age. Family size status of the respondent’s household revealed that some (46.4%) of them had only two children, while 27.3% of the respondents had three. More than half (70.3%) of the respondents had secondary education while the rest of them were either primary school leavers (15.6%) or graduates from tertiary institutions (5.4%) while 8.4% had no primary education.  Majority (47.3%) of the nursing mothers were civil servants and traders 32.6%. Only a few (7.5%) of them were just house wives. More than half (53.5%) of the respondents household earned monthly incomes above 40,000. Obstetric data revealed that the respondents had previously been pregnant once (9.2%), twice (34.4%), thrice (38.1 %) and four times (14.6%).  Only a few (1.7%) of the mothers had experienced child death. Results further showed that majority (60.2%) of the nursing mothers had fair knowledge of breastfeeding, some of them (22.2 %) had poor knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding, while only 17.6% had a good knowledge of exclusive breast feeding. The result on the attitude of nursing mothers towards exclusive breast feeding revealed that most (67.8%) of the nursing mothers had a good attitude towards breast feeding their children, while a good number (32.2%) of them had a fair attitude towards breastfeeding. Results further revealed that all (100%) of the respondents had discussions with their husbands on exclusive breastfeeding. Majority of them received adequate support from their husbands (93.3%) and inlaws (61.9%) on exclusive breastfeeding. Majority of the infants had normal length for age (95.0%), weight for age (82.4%), weight for length (90.4%) and MUAC for age (92.9%) status. However, wasting and underweight status of the infants were observed using weight for age (13.4%) and weight for length (9.2%) classifications. A significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed between maternal educational level and infant weight for age (X2 =17.40a; P-value = 0.03). Information on the determinants of exclusive and non-exclusive breastfeeding revealed that the following factors had a significant (P <0.05) effect on exclusive and non-exclusive breastfeeding practices: maternal educational status (X2 = 4.24; P=0.04), Parity (6.247a; 0.03), and level of support from husband (X2= 3.48; 0.04).