Impact of the baby friendly hospital initiative (BFHI) programme on breast-feeding knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of the baby friendly hospital initiative (BFHI) programme on the breast-feeding knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers attending Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital, Enugu. The study randomly sampled 146 breast-feeding mothers whose babies were between 0-23 months. A validated questionnaire was used to obtain useful information from the mothers. The data obtained was analyzed into frequency and percentages. The result showed that 12.3% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within 30 min of delivery, 93.2% of them fed colostrum, 9.6% of the respondents perceived that colostrum should not be fed to infants and 31.5% exclusively breast-fed their babies for 6 months. The major factors that militated against exclusive breast-feeding were that it caused firm breast to fall (6.4%) and ties mother down (19.2%). It was obvious from the study that there was a wide gap between knowledge and practice of exclusive breast-feeding in the study area. There is urgent need to plan strategies to aggressively promote exclusive breast-feeding practice. Lactation support groups as well as opinion leaders and women group in the communities should provide complementary support to the already existing strategies. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2016.