Background: Breastfeeding has a growing interest and it ensures adequate nutrition, especially in developing countries; breastfeeding has the most significant benefit in the prevention of illnesses and reduces mortality. Unfortunately, multiple cities in Saudi Arabia show a low prevalence of exclusively breastfeeding mothers. This study aims to study the factors influencing the choice of exclusive formula feeding or complementary feeding over exclusive breastfeeding in Makkah region, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: This study used a cross-sectional, community-based survey by sampling technique, which is a structured questionnaire that has been made based on pretested, tested, and older studies through passing the questionnaires to the mothers and then analyzing the data from the questionnaires.
Results: 354 mothers responded to this questionnaire. 51.7% were aged between 21 and 30 years 84.7% of the full cohort had a university degree. 40.7% of the mothers were using complementary feeding (a combination of breast and bottle feeding), while only 25.1% were following an exclusive breastfeeding strategy. 9.6% of the mothers had chronic medical conditions. 15% were using medications. 35.3% had infants aged between 1 and
6 months. 65.5% of the mothers had tried breastfeeding earlier, wherein 64.4% started breastfeeding after few hours from delivery and 18.6% of the mothers stated that their breast milk was not sufficient for their babies. Also, 7.1% of the mothers found that their working conditions were not compatible with breastfeeding.
Conclusion: The age of mothers and infants, as well as delivery settings, are the most critical factors influencing breastfeeding. Further studies to assess the knowledge of mothers toward the benefits of breastfeeding are needed.
Key words: Breastfeeding, bottle feeding, complementary feeding, infants, mothers, factors, prevalence, lactation, delivery, Saudi Arabia
|
