family support and compliance to exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with infants of 6 - 23 months attending reproductive and child health clinic at vijibweni hospital, dar es salaam

Abstract

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is very vital for the first six months of an infants’ life. It has been recognised as an important public health tool for the primary prevention of child morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, there are either minimal efforts or very limited success in promotion of EBF. Family is a crucial component of social institution which provides family support to enable exclusive breastfeeding practice. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of family support on compliance to exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with infants of 6-23 months attending RCH clinic at Vijibweni Hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital based, quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive study. Respondents were mothers of infants of 6-23 months attending RCH services at Vijibweni Hospital. Interviews were conducted to a randomly selected sample of 384 mothers. Analysis of data was done through descriptive, and chi square test. Results: The study findings revealed that majority (63.8%) of respondents lacked family support. However, it was found that about 36.2% of mothers claimed to have obtained family support. Therefore, the finding of this study revealed that majority of breastfeeding mothers who lacked family support would be affected in terms of their breastfeeding practices. The findings also revealed that there was a significant association between exclusive breastfeeding and some socio-demographic characteristics of respondents including education, marital status, and occupation and they were no significant changes even after controlling for parity and age. The findings also revealed significant association between emotional and practical support and compliance to exclusive breastfeeding practices. This implies that those mothers who were either emotionally or practically supported were more likely to breast feed their children exclusively. Conclusion and Recommendations: Family support was determined as an important factor to EBF compliance, thus family members, the community and health sectors, should consider family involvement as a strategy to ensure mothers comply with EBF recommendations.