Prevalence of breastfeeding and factors affect its practice in women attending primary health care units in Cairo

Abstract

reastfeeding is the most healthy way for providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development, It is the natural first food for babies by which they acquire the energy , nutrients and immunity that the infant needs for the first months of life. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of breastfeeding among women attending primary health care units and identified factors which might affect breastfeeding outcomes. A sample of 400 mothers attending in two different primary heath care centers El Tagamoa El Khames which was a newly established primary health care center and El Zawia which was an old established one. An interview questionnaire was done to identify the prevalence and factors affecting breastfeeding. Regarding the sociodemographic characteristics of the study population, the maternal age was in the range of 18-42 years, with a mean around 29± SD 4.43. Most of the participants 49.5% were University educated, 66.25% were housewives, whereas 47.5% of fathers were University educated. The income of families ranged between 400-22,000 L.E.±SD 3826. The prevalence of breast feeding was 94.5% (378/400) from which more than half of the infants 66.5% were mixed fed, 28% were exclusively breastfed, and only 5.5% of the infants were not breastfed.