الفهرس 
Epidemiology of breastfeedingOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Human milk is the ideal and unique food for infants. It is the sole source of nutrition for the first six months of life with continued intake for the first year and associated with benefits to both mother and child. But many women encounter barriers to breastfeeding, even after successful breastfeeding initiation, which may put them at greater risk for early cessation of breastfeeding.
Health care providers can influence a woman’s decision to breastfeed and her ability and desire to continue breastfeeding. Education to improve health care providers’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes is a key step to increasing professional support for breastfeeding.
The aim of this study is breastfeeding promotion by estimating the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and identifying its barriers among studied group in Berket El-Sabaa district, Menoufia governorate, Egypt. It was a cross sectional study that was conducted in Berket El-Sabaa district. Target population is mothers of infants aged 6-12 months attending to vaccination sessions in Berket El-Sabaa district. Sample size was calculated using EPI-INFO program version (7) depending on the total number of newly pregnant mothers at the previous year of study in Berket El-Sabaa district in 2015. The calculated sample size was 325 mothers increased to 380 mothers to avoid dropout and repetition during the procedure of the study. Sample was chosen by proportional allocation method from urban (Berket El-Sabaa child care center) and rural area (Kafr Houren family health care unit) in Berket El-Sabaa district. An interview questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data which include the following:- 1) Socio-economic demographic data.
2) Data of the youngest child. 3) Initiation of breastfeeding. 4) Breastfeeding pattern of the youngest child. 5) Complementary feeding characteristics. 6) Barriers to breastfeeding (maternal barriers, infantile barriers and believes & attitude) 7) Health education level of the mother. from this study it was found that: 1) A total of 370 mothers answered the questionnaire. Majority of studied mothers (72.4%) aged from 20 -30 years. As regard to the mother’s education, about two thirds of the mothers (62.6%) were intermediate educated (preparatory and secondary education). More than half of mothers (55.1%) were housewives. Nearly two thirds of mothers’ families (61.6%) had moderate socio-economic status. 2) It was found that EBF rates were more among mothers aged 20-30 years (75.5%), with intermediate educational level (58.5%), housewives (69.8%), multipara (83.0%), moderate socioeconomic standard (55.7%), mothers who received health education about breastfeeding and were trained about appropriate positioning (62.3%), mothers who got their information about breastfeeding from medical staff (62.3%), and mothers who initiated breastfeeding early within the 1st hour of labor (77.4%). 3) More than half of the infants (54.6%) were mixed fed, (28.6%) were exclusively breastfed and only (16.8%) of the infants were not breastfed. 4) Most of mothers (58.9%) initiated breastfeeding late after delivery (not during the 1st hour after labor). Only (2.7%) of mothers never breastfed their infants. Tiredness, belief of no or insufficient milk and pain due to labor, inadequate knowledge about breastfeeding importance during 1st hour after labor, painful breast during nursing, embarrassment to nurse, hospitals offering bottle of artificial milk or herbal drink and failure of attachment to the nipple (89.9%, 86.2%, 78.9%, 59.6%, 53.2%, 47.7%, 45%, 43.1% respectively) were the barriers to early initiation of breastfeeding. 5) Main barriers to exclusive breastfeeding were lack of health education about breastfeeding technique, benefits, obstacles and how to overcome them (84.1%), belief that the infant is hungry (43.2%), nipple fissures and soreness (40.2%), easiness of artificial feeding (39.4%), insufficient milk supply (37.9%), tiredness during breastfeeding (37.5%), pediatrician prescription on artificial milk or other supplements (36.4%), considering artificial milk is more beneficial than mother`s (34.1%), work of the mother (33.7%), advice from family and friends to use supplements (31.8%), infant rejection of breastfeeding (31.1%).