Breastfeeding Practices among Nurses with Children Aged 0 – 6 Months in a Referral Hospital in Nakuru- Kenya
Journal Title: IOSR Journal of Nursing and health Science - Year 2019, Vol 7, Issue 1
Abstract
Globally it’s estimated that 1.4 Million lives are lost each year due to inadequate exclusive breastfeeding while 600 thousand cases occur due to lack of continuation of breastfeeding with inadequate complementary feeding. 40% of the deaths occur within the first month of life and 70% within the first year of life (UNICEF, 2008). Exclusive breast feeding is practiced on only 14% in infant less than six months while 27% are bottle feed. (WHO, 2008) This means that most children are not exclusively breastfed especially between 0-6 months and more awareness needs to be done to scale up the uptake of exclusive breastfeeding among the mothers. In Kenya only 32% of children are exclusively breastfed up to 6month and in Rift valley province only 21% of children were exclusively breastfed. This shows that the practice of exclusive breastfeeding is poorly practiced. (Kenya demographic health survey (KDHS, 2009). Therefore the study seeks to find out how nurses practices are related to the poor practice of exclusive breastfeeding among children aged 0-6months as they should be the first line advocates for appropriate feeding practices. Also there is little publication given on their practices. According to (UNICEF, 2009) lack of breast feeding is however attributed to problems associated with early initiation of complementary foods before the age of 6 months. This has caused rising incidences of overweight and obesity in children which is associated with poor feeding practices which is a major threat to social and economic development which is an obstacle to attaining and maintaining health to this age groups. The purpose of the study was to establish the adherence to the recommded breast feeding practices and the establish the factors influencing breast feeding practices. The researcher found that all nurses were aware of the current breastfeeding recommendations and breastfeeding was taught to them during the antenatal and postnatal (53%) while 47% were never taught. Though the nurses have the knowledge on the initiation of breast feeding, on demand feeding and continuation up to 2years of age only 33% practice exclusive breast feeding. This shows that despite the exposure to knowledge that nurses have, this has not significantly affected the practice of EBF. Therefore there is need to put knowledge into practice in order to promote and support breastfeeding among their client and scale up proper breastfeeding practices. Although factors like short maternity leave and early commencement of night shift have contributed to the low uptake of EBF, nurses need to be empowered to carry out optimal feeding among their own infants.
Authors and Affiliations
Deborah Kereri
Keywords
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- EP ID EP435696
- DOI 10.9790/1959-0701088998.
- Views 88
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