Breastfeeding practice and knowledge among women attending primary health-care centers in Riyadh 2016.

Introduction: Breast milk is the best natural essential nutrition to newborns and infants. However, the practice of breastfeeding (BF) has declined in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice of BF with their determinants among mothers in Riyadh.

Materials And Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 252 mothers attending the well-baby clinics in Riyadh from March 2016 to May 2017 were selected randomly with their consent and studied by a standardized questionnaire.

Results: Of the 252 women, 69.4% were 25-35 years of age and 56.7% with a bachelor degree or higher education. Nearly 75% mothers had education on BF before our study. Mixed feeding was the most preferred method (51.6%) followed by artificial milk (29.4%). The most reported reason for discontinuing BF was breast milk insufficiency (37.3%) and of breastfeed continuation was their perceived benefit (36.6%). Excellent knowledge was observed among 12.7%, good knowledge in 57.1%, and unsatisfactory level in 30.2% mothers. The regression model shows that high school education improved the knowledge by 10.9 points ( = 0.024) and undergraduate by 18.7 points ( value = 0.001) when compared to women who were literate. Women with parity >5 improved knowledge score by 17.3 points ( < 0.001).

Conclusion: We observed that majority (57.1%) of Saudi mothers had a moderate level of knowledge on BF benefits and 19% had practiced exclusive BF. There is a need for better educational programs to increase awareness on its benefits for the health situation in the country on the long term.