Background: Improving maternal and child health, one of the key UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Exclusive breast-feeding contributes significantly to child survival and development, but many mothers in Africa do not exclusively breastfeed their infants. This paper reports a study in Mulago hospital in Kampala. The study aims to identify factors influencing mothers' choices of infant feeding practices.

Methods: Mixed methods were used. Respondents included 362 lactating mothers and health workers. Participants were who came for treatment were selected using simple random sampling. EpiInfor and SPSS were used for analysing the data and presented as descriptive study.

Results: Results indicate that socio-demographic factors including age and education level influence mothers' ability and willingness to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months. Awareness about breast-feeding was mainly obtained from health centres, leaving mothers unable to attend these centres to miss out on vital information about exclusive breast-feeding. Around 43% of health workers were unaware of the country's Young and Infant Feeding Policy Guidelines.

Conclusions: To increase the rate of exclusive breast-feeding in Uganda, it is important that community health is strengthened, and health workers are trained on national breast-feeding policies.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9652645PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v22i2.62DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

exclusive breast-feeding
16
health workers
12
mulago hospital
8
infant feeding
8
health
6
breast-feeding
5
exclusive
4
breast-feeding months
4
months findings
4
findings cross-sectional
4

Similar Publications

Background: The warm chain of support is the continuous enabling environment from the mother's first contact with healthcare professionals during early pregnancy, birth and immediate post-partum period, her transition from healthcare facility to home, through to work and the community at large. A breastfeeding-friendly city should be able to support a breastfeeding journey across the warm chain.

Objective: To determine breastfeeding women's perspective of an ideal breastfeeding-friendly city.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A Mobile App for Promoting Breastfeeding-Friendly Communities in Hong Kong: Design and Development Study.

JMIR Form Res

January 2025

School of Nursing, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, 5/F, Academic Building, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong), 852 39176690.

Background: Breastfeeding is vital for the health and well-being of both mothers and infants, and it is crucial to create supportive environments that promote and maintain breastfeeding practices.

Objective: The objective of this paper was to describe the development of a breastfeeding-friendly app called "bfGPS" (HKU TALIC), which provides comprehensive territory-wide information on breastfeeding facilities in Hong Kong, with the goal of fostering a breastfeeding-friendly community.

Methods: The development of bfGPS can be categorized into three phases, which are (1) planning, prototype development, and preimplementation evaluation; (2) implementation and updates; and (3) usability evaluation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Obstetric outcomes in breastfeeding women in the first hour of delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

January 2025

Department of Maternal and Child Nursing and Public Health, School of Nursing, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Article Synopsis
  • Breastfeeding has numerous health benefits for both mothers and newborns, acting as a protective factor against infant illness and mortality.
  • The study aimed to compare obstetric outcomes between women who breastfed and those who did not, using data from two different time periods: during the pandemic and pre-pandemic.
  • Results indicated that fewer women breastfed within the first hour after delivery during the pandemic, with non-infected mothers having better outcomes regarding vaginal delivery and breastfeeding compared to infected or suspected cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Human milk (HBM) and bovine milk (PBM) are both sources of nutrition that involve lactose, which can be fermented by the bacteria Streptococcus mutans, potentially affecting dental health.
  • This study compares how S. mutans forms biofilms, produces acid, and buffers in HBM, plain and sweetened PBM, and infant formula (IF) through various microbiological assays.
  • Results indicated that sweetened bovine milk had the highest biofilm formation and lowest pH, while both HBM and PBM showed low cariogenicity, differing from the effects of sucrose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To assess the associations between serum and dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), as well as the inflammatory potential of diet measured by the Children's Dietary Inflammatory Index (C-DII), and recurrent respiratory infections (RRIs) in children. We enrolled 44 children aged 3-16 years with RRIs and 44 healthy controls. Dietary intake was assessed using a 7-day food record from which PUFA intake and C-DII were calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!