Practice of Breastfeeding among Mothers Attending Immunization Clinics in Primary Health Care Centres, Southwest-Nigeria: A Cross-sectional Study

Purpose: Breastfeeding has been endorsed by the World Health Organization as the most effective method to feed infants. To find out the breastfeeding practices and examine the factors affecting the practice among mothers attending immunization clinics at Primary Health Centers within Ado-Ekiti in Nigeria. Methodology: A total of 450 respondents were randomly selected with Fisher's formula using a cross-sectional descriptive study design. Multistage sampling techniques was used to select two out of fifteen wards in Ado Local Government Area through random sampling by balloting, out of which two Primary Health Care was selected one from each Local Government Area. Adapted, semi-structured, interview administered questionnaire was used, data was entered and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 and p value set at 5%. Findings: Out of the respondents, 152 (33.8%) exclusively breastfed their babies and 163 (36.2%) initiated breastfeeding within one hour after delivery. One hundred and thirty-two (29.3%) gave pre-lacteal feeding to their babies, of whom 93 (70.4%) gave water and glucose. From the multivariate analysis, the mothers that were employed were more likely to exclusively breastfed their babies with OR of 1.58 and p value of <0.05. The primiparous mothers were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of delivery OR of 0.62 and p value of 0.03. Recommendation: Significant numbers of the mothers were still not practicing exclusive breastfeeding and not initiating breastfeeding early enough after delivery. There is need to educate women especially the primiparous mothers on the benefits of early initiation of breastfeeding and danger of pre-lacteal feeding.