Attitudes of Mothers admitted to a Maternity Ward in Port Harcourt, to Breast-feeding

Abstract

Summary:  One hundred and forty-six recently delivered mothers at the University Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, were questioned within 24 hours of delivery, about how they intended to feed their new babies. Of the 146 mothers questioned, 65 (45%) intended to exclusively breast-feed their new babies, 81 (55%) hoped to use a combination formula and breast-feeding and none wanted her newborn baby wholly bottle-fed. The main reasons given for intending to wholly breast-feed were that the breast-milk was better for baby's health and that breast-feeding was a natural thing to do. Mothers who chose to supplement breast-feeding with artificial feeds were mainly working mothers and those who thought that breast-milk alone was not sufficient for their babies. The choice of feeding method was not significantly influenced by maternal age, parity, educational status, maternal occupation, marital status and mode of delivery of the new baby, but was so influenced by the method of feeding a previous baby (p<0.001).