Exclusive breast-feeding practice and associated factors in Enugu, Nigeria.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 235 infant-mother pairs in five Baby Friendly pairs in five Baby Friendly Hospitals in Enugu-Nigeria in 1998. The aims were to study their breast-feeding practices and associated factors. The exclusive breast-feeding rate was 33.3% while the predominant breast-feeding rate was 50.2%. Factors associated with exclusive breast-feeding included infants' birth order (P = 0.015), fathers' education (P =0.0244), mothers' education (P = 0.000001), occupation (P = 0.0069) and parity (P = 0.004). However, the infants' age (P = 0.054) and sex (P = 0.403), mothers' age (P = 0.2005), number of breast-feeding counseling attendances (P = 0.0883) and the breast-feeding initiator (P = 0.473) were comparable irrespective of breast-feeding practice. In the mothers' perspectives, the commonest reasons for not breastfeeding exclusively included; insufficient breast milk (58,37.0%) and the sociocultural practice of giving water to babies because of the hot climate (52,33.1%). For an improvement in the exclusive breast-feeding rate of this population, health workers should highlight to mothers the dangers of water supplementation and the dynamics of breastmilk supply through health education, home visits and the formation of community based lactation support groups.