Barriers to Exclusive Breastfeeding in Children Under 6 Months of Age in District Kasur

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of my study were to identify major factors which prevent mothers to breastfeed their infants in the first six months and to analyze the behavioral constraints to develop a suitable strategy for strengthening the practices of exclusive breastfeeding. Study Design: Descriptive Study. Methodology: The study was conducted on 37 subjects, who were mothers with young children under six months of age and were not breastfeeding their children due to any reason. The study was based on direct interview taken at DHQ Hospital Kasur and BHU Rao Khan Wala in the district Kasur. The interviews lasted for about half an hour with each subject. Subjects who were breastfeeding regularly or who were HIV, Hepatitis and other diseases positive were not included. The interviews were conducted in a separate room with least disturbance. Quantitative data like age was presented by mean and standard deviation while qualitative data education, profession were presented by frequency and percentages. SPSS (version 20) software was used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of infants of group (62.1%) was of 2.2 months ± 0.7 and other group of infants (37.9%) was of mean age 5.2 months ± 0.6. The mean weight (kg) and standard deviation of the index children at birth was 3.1 (kg) ± 0.2. Among index infants 37.8% were male infants and 62.2% were female infants. By place of birth of children, 75.6% births took place in a health facility. 32.4% mothers were illiterate. 13.5% mothers were on job. Only 83.7% females had fed colostrum to their infants. 62.1% mothers were those who never fed their infants. 27.0% were those who initially fed their infants for short period of time and then stopped feeding who fed irregularly was 10.8%. Important factor identified was insufficient milk production (65.2%) with significance of p-value = <0.05 and Sickness of mothers and consequently advised by doctor to avoid breastfeeding to their infants, was contributing (52.1%) with significance value p= <0.05 among mothers who never breastfed their infants under six months of age. Conclusion: Inadequate milk production and mothers’ sickness were most commonly stated factors.

Keywords: Exclusive breastfeeding, barriers, insufficient milk production