Mothers’ breastfeeding practices and attitudes toward exclusive breastfeeding in Adamawa State, Northeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practice have been a serious public health concern, not only in Nigeria but in the world at large. It has severally been reported that there is low practice and awareness of EBF in Nigeria. I evaluated the variation in the level of knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding between mothers in Yola and those in Fufure IDP camp as well as their perceptions towards its practice. I also assessed the most effective medium of awareness for the knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding among the respondents. I used a targeted study design and convenience sampling method, which is a non-probability sampling technique. My total sample size was 220. The results showed that respondents have high degree of awareness of EBF (90.9%) and thus most of them practice it (70.4%). Clinical sessions appeared to be the most effective source of promoting EBF awareness as most of the respondents (60.1%) learned about it there. Finally, the result of this study have contradicted many other relevant studies because it revealed that there is so much knowledge and awareness of EBF among mothers in Adamawa state. Although, there is already a great deal of awareness of EBF in Adamawa state that are developed by the state health care units through antenatal and postnatal sessions, media would also be a great medium to promote EBF awareness in the state.