Exclusive Breastfeeding: Awareness and Utilization as a Method of Family Planning Among Nursing Mothers at Obio Cottage Hospital Port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the level of awareness and utilization of exclusive breastfeeding as a method of feeding and also for family planning; some other variables investigated as a by-product of the study are other methods of infant feeding and family planning used asides from exclusive breastfeeding. A hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing a population of 400 nursing mothers attending the immunization clinic at the Obio Cottage Hospital, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. A sample of 200 breastfeeding mothers was obtained using the Taro-Yemen formula and Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy theory was reviewed and applied as the theory that guided the study. A total of four objectives were formulated and data was collected with a questionnaire developed and validated by the researchers. The reliability of the instrument was ensured by conducting test-retest reliability within a two-week interval: the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) was the statistic used in computing the correlation between the two sets of data. The correlation was found to be 0.74. On the other hand, frequencies and simple percentages were used in analyzing the research data. The research findings showed a high level of awareness (90.7%) and widespread utilization (81.6%) of exclusive breastfeeding, satisfying the first and second objectives. However, lower rates of awareness of exclusive breastfeeding as a method of family planning (51.7%) were observed with even lower utilization (40.2%), for the by-products of the study, there was an 18.4% use of other feeding methods including, breastfeeding and water or baby formula and baby formula only. Finally, 59.8% of respondents use other methods of family planning, predominantly condoms, and 28.8% do not use family planning.