Socio-cultural factors responsible for low rate of exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers attending a Nigerian Tertiary Health Institution

Abstract

Background: Despite the recognition of the importance of breast milk, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding is still low in Nigeria and the duration of breastfeeding is also unsatisfactory. Objectives: This study is aimed at examining the socio-cultural factors that might be responsible for this observation.

Methods: Exclusive Breastfeeding Assessment Questionnaire (EBAQ) was used to obtain data from the nursing mothers with children under 2 years of age who are attending a tertiary health institution in Sagamu town. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data while inferential statistics was used to see relationship between the socio-cultural factors and practice of exclusive breastfeeding. There were 231 respondents.

Results: The results showed a significant correlation between exclusive breastfeeding and socio-cultural factors. Factors such as religion, self employed, level of education greater or equal to OND and level of income less than ₦5,000.00 and ₦10,000.00-19,999.00 per month significant correlate with practice of exclusive breastfeeding.

Conclusions: For an improvement in the exclusive breastfeeding rate of this population, health workers should bear in mind the socio-cultural factors of mothers in their locality during antenatal and postnatal cares.