STUDY OF EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING AMONG NURSING MOTHERS

INTRODUCTION
Breast feeding which is the act of feeding babies with breast milk. This is a universal cultural practice among human species of all races. However, there are commonly observable variations in the frequency and exclusiveness of application of breast milk in the feeding of babies. This is noted by Berg and Brenms (1989) who asserted that the question about breastfeeding is not whether it is being practiced or not, but the degree of practice. There are, therefore types of breastfeeding of which three categories are discernible from literature: Exclusive, predominant and complementary breastfeeding.
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is the application of breast milk alone in the feeding of a baby for at least four months and if possible six months of life, without the addition of water, food or drinks. The baby however receives vitamins, minerals and medicines in the form of drops and syrup as need arises (WHO,1981). The World Health Organization WHO (2001) received the optional duration of EBF to six months of life. The second type of breastfeeding, predominant breastfeeding (PBF), on the other hand, implies that the infants predominant source of nourishment is breast milk. The infant in this type receives in addition of breast milk, water and water based drinks (WHO 2001). Complimentary breastfeeding (CBF) or mixed feeding occurs where factory produced baby formula is the primary source of nourishment for the infant, the breast milk given occasionally. This practice offers mother chance to attend to their daily activities while nannies and house helps attend to babies: This present study was however concerned with exclusive breastfeeding.
Promotion of breastfeeding, particularly EBF, has been the focus of many public health and nutrition programmes and activities in recent years. Thus a joint World health Organization/ united Nations children’s fund (WHO/UNICEF) meeting on infant and young child feeding was held in Genera in 1979 and the emphasis was on breast feeding. In 1981 the combined force of the W.H.O and UNICEF produced the W.H.O international code of marketing of breast milk substitute. The main aim of the code obviously was to safeguard the practice of breast feeding. To enhance breastfeeding practices, WHO launched the baby friendly hospital initiative in 1992 as a primary intervention strategy for promoting and strengthening national health systems. The initiative has been implemented in 138 countries (including Nigeria) and the number of hospitals world wide designated baby friendly has risen from 6,300 in 1995 to nearly 40,000 by mid 2008 (WHO, 2009). Cataldo De Bryne and whitney (1999) asserted that EBF is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants. The authors explained that nutritionally, breast milk is a complete food for the infant, providing all the nutrients needed for the first month of life.
Psychologically, breastfeeding permits an initial bonding between mother and child. Economically, breast-milk economizes on house hold expenditures on food and requires no itensils, water or fuel for preparation. However, the lactating woman do not have higher nutrient requirements and make substantial time to breastfeeding. Berg and Brenms (1989) cited breast milk for it’s anti-infective properties, lower incidence of diarrhea diseases, allergies and other illness among breastfed infants. It removes the danger of malnutrition caused by dilution of bottle feed and of infection caused by unhygienic preparation (Berg and Brenms, 1989).
However, it seems that EBF is still not widely accepted campaign by government and non-governmental organizations has gone far, but it appears not to be yielding expected dividend. The question that are yet to be answered, lies in determining those factors which can predict levels of acceptance or rejection of EBF. Possible predictor could be sourced from social mographic circumstances of the mothers. For instance such social demographic factors as religious affiliation, occupation, educational status, parity, age, as well as location are deemed to be capable of influencing adoption of exclusive breastfeeding. Parity has to do with the number of deliveries a woman has had. Breastfeeding, in Nigeria is still the norm as most mothers breastfeed their babies traditionally. However, exclusive breastfeeding is an innovation to the traditional way of feeding an infant where mothers starts complementary feeding as early as two months of life or even less. A woman who has nursed several babies successfully before may not be easily convinced to stop by giving her infant water and native concoction. She may not see why she should change her method of feeding, since she has successfully used such to nurse her older children (Mathai, 1983).