Attitude of working-class nursing mothers towards exclusive breastfeeding in Lokoja Metropolis, Nigeria: implications to counselling practice

Many working-class nursing women put up questionable attitude when it comes to exclusively breastfeeding their babies. The purpose of this study therefore, is to investigate the attitude of working-class nursing mothers in Lokoja Metropolis towards exclusive breastfeeding. Variables such as age, type of occupation and educational attainment were also examined if they would affect the respondents’ expressions. Descriptive survey method was adopted for the study. A total of 200 respondents who were selected using a two-stage sampling procedure participated in the study. An instrument entitled ‘Attitude towards Exclusive Breastfeeding Questionnaire’ was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by five experts in the 5 experts in the Departments of Counsellor Education and Adult & Primary Education, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through test re-test reliability method with a reliability co-efficient of 0.83. ANOVA statistical method was used to test the formulated hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. Result showed that the attitude of working-class nursing mothers in Lokoja Metropolis towards exclusive breastfeeding is positive. There was no significant difference in the attitude of working-class nursing mothers towards exclusive breastfeeding in Lokoja Metropolis based on age but there were significant differences on the bases of type of occupation and educational attainment. It was concluded that counsellors should encourage and counsel working-class mothers to adopt benefitting coping strategies so that they can maintain their positive attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding of their babies. Keywords: Attitude, Working Class, Nursing Mothers, Exclusive Breastfeeding, Lokoja Metropolis