Objective: To determine frequency of mothers who are not exclusively breast feeding and factors leading to it at a tertiary care hospital.
Methodology: In this descriptive cross sectional study, 292 mothers with their up to 6 month old baby were included from inpatients of pediatric department of Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, Pakistan from Jan 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014. Mothers were asked about infantsÂ’ detailed history, mode of delivery and about the mothers age, parity, socioeconomic status and also enquired whether they were working or housewives. Feeding history was asked from mother for pattern of breast feeding whether exclusive or not, if not exclusive breast feeding, what factors preventing from this. Socioeconomic statuses of parents were determined by their income, they were divided into high, middle and low class groups.
Results: Out of 292 mothers, 260(89.04%) were housewives and only 32(0.96%) were working mothers. In this study, 283 (96.92%) mothers were from low social class, 9(3.08) from middle class while none was from upper class. Out of 292 infants, only 116(39.7%) were exclusively breastfed while 176 (60.3%) were not exclusively breastfed. We found that 106 (60.2%), mother were not exclusively breastfeeding due to perceived insufficient milk. 28 (15.9%) mothers claimed that they had to work in office or at field in addition to house hold work so we were not able to exclusively breastfed their baby.
Conclusion: Mothers who were not exclusively breast feeding to their babies was not as low as it is commonly believed.
Key words: Exclusive, breastfeeding, insufficient milk, parity, working mothers.
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