Exploring the Experiences of Middle Income Mothers in Practicing Exclusive Breastfeeding in Nairobi, Kenya

Wainaina, Caroline; Wanjohi, Milka; Wekesah, Frederick; Woolhead, Gillian; Kimani‐Murage, Elizabeth

doi:10.1007/s10995-018-2430-4

Cited by 24 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…As shown in Table , one identified need is ensuring sufficient master trainers are available to meet the demand, alongside training and social and behaviour change counselling materials, to build nutrition competencies of health providers (De Lorme et al, ; Wainaina, Wanjohi, Wekesah, Woolhead, & Kimani‐Murage, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Baby‐Friendly Community Initiative—From national guidelines to implementation: A multisectoral platform for improving infant and young child feeding practices and integrated health services

Kavle

Ahoya²,

Kiige³

et al. 2019

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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The Baby‐Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) is an extension of the 10th step of the Ten Steps of Successful Breastfeeding and the Baby‐Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and provides continued breastfeeding support to communities upon facility discharge after birth. BFCI creates a comprehensive support system at the community level through the establishment of mother‐to‐mother and community support groups to improve breastfeeding. The Government of Kenya has prioritized community‐based programming in the country, including the development of the first national BFCI guidelines, which inform national and subnational level implementation. This paper describes the process of BFCI implementation within the Kenyan health system, as well as successes, challenges, and opportunities for integration of BFCI into health and other sectors. In Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) and UNICEF areas, 685 community leaders were oriented to BFCI, 475 health providers trained, 249 support groups established, and 3,065 children 0–12 months of age reached (MCSP only). Though difficult to attribute to our programme, improvements in infant and young child feeding practices were observed from routine health data following the programme, with dramatic declines in prelacteal feeding (19% to 11%) in Kisumu County and (37.6% to 5.1%) in Migori County from 2016 to 2017. Improvements in initiation and exclusive breastfeeding in Migori were also noted—from 85.9% to 89.3% and 75.2% to 92.3%, respectively. Large gains in consumption of iron‐rich complementary foods were also seen (69.6% to 90.0% in Migori, 78% to 90.9% in Kisumu) as well as introduction of complementary foods (42.0–83.3% in Migori). Coverage for BFCI activities varied across counties, from 20% to 60% throughout programme implementation and were largely sustained 3 months postimplementation in Migori, whereas coverage declined in Kisumu. BFCI is a promising platform to integrate into other sectors, such as early child development, agriculture, and water, sanitation, and hygiene.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Baby‐Friendly Community Initiative—From national guidelines to implementation: A multisectoral platform for improving infant and young child feeding practices and integrated health services

Kavle

Ahoya²,

Kiige³

et al. 2019

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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“…Most workplace breastfeeding literature has focussed on support when the mother has returned to employment, but our ndings suggest that this is too late. In the absence of any conversation with managers on reconciling work and breastfeeding prior to the mother going on maternity leave, many mothers tend to cease breastfeeding during maternity leave in preparation to return to work [11,33,34]. Our ndings suggest that if managers and mothers have a conversation about entitled breastfeeding breaks and workplace support prior to the mother's maternity leave, it is likely that fewer mothers will perceive return to work as a reason to stop breastfeeding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Return to employment is a major reason breastfeeding is compromised both globally [6][7][8][9] and in the Southern African context [10,11]. Not surprising, breastfeeding at work is a complex work-family issue because in order to maintain the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendation to breastfeed exclusively for the rst six months of the infant's life [12], most mothers must engage in this responsibility in the time and space of paid work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of workplace breastfeeding in a provincial government setting: A qualitative exploratory study among managers and mothers in South Africa

Mabaso

Jaga

Doherty

2020

Preprint

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Background: Return to employment is a major barrier to breastfeeding continuation, globally and in the Southern African context. The Lancet breastfeeding series revealed an explicit need for research exploring breastfeeding as a workplace issue in low- and middle-income countries. A dearth of research on workplace breastfeeding in South Africa calls for attention to this topic. This study sought to explore breastfeeding at work experiences from the perspective of employed mothers and senior managers in a provincial government setting in South Africa.Methods: The study adopted an exploratory qualitative design with multi-perspective semi-structured interviews. Snowball sampling was employed to recruit twelve participants, (n = 4) senior managers and (n = 8) employed mothers, from two provincial government departments in Cape Town, South Africa. Interviews were conducted between April and August 2018 to capture participants’ experiences with breastfeeding in the workplace. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Results: Four key themes that described breastfeeding at work experiences emerged which further traversed three critical maternity periods: pregnancy, maternity leave, and return to work. The prevalent themes were; knowledge about the legislation and breastfeeding support benefits, perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding in the workplace, barriers to breastfeeding continuation, and recommendations to improve breastfeeding support at work. Conclusion: Our study contributions emphasise that breastfeeding support from managers should begin prior to the mother taking maternity leave, and that in addition to infrastructural developments, immediate supervisor support may be critical in fostering breastfeeding friendly workplaces for working mothers. Implications for management for advancing support for breastfeeding at work in the public sector are presented.

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“…Most workplace breastfeeding literature has focussed on support when the mother has returned to employment, but our ndings suggest that this is too late. In the absence of any conversation with managers on reconciling work and breastfeeding prior to the mother going on maternity leave, many mothers tend to cease breastfeeding during maternity leave in preparation to return to work [10,38,39]. Our ndings suggest that if managers and mothers have a conversation about entitled breastfeeding breaks and workplace support prior to the mother's maternity leave, it is likely that fewer mothers will perceive return to work as a reason to stop breastfeeding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of workplace breastfeeding in a provincial government setting: A qualitative exploratory study among managers and mothers in South Africa

Mabaso

Jaga

Doherty

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Return to employment is a major barrier to breastfeeding continuation, globally and in the Southern African context. The Lancet breastfeeding series revealed an explicit need for research exploring breastfeeding as a workplace issue in low- and middle-income countries. A dearth of research on workplace breastfeeding in South Africa calls for attention to this topic. This study sought to explore breastfeeding at work experiences from the perspective of employed mothers and senior managers in a provincial government setting in South Africa. Methods: The study adopted an exploratory qualitative design with multi-perspective semi-structured interviews. Snowball sampling was employed to recruit twelve participants, senior managers (n = 4) and employed mothers (n = 8), from two provincial government departments in Cape Town, South Africa. Interviews were conducted between April and August 2018 to capture participants’ experiences with breastfeeding in the workplace. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Results: Four key themes that described experiences of workplace breastfeeding emerged which further traversed three critical maternity periods: pregnancy, maternity leave, and return to work. The prevalent themes were: 1) Knowledge about the legislation and breastfeeding support benefits. Most participants only knew about the legislated four months maternity leave and time off for prenatal visits but lacked knowledge about comprehensive maternity benefits; 2) Perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding in the workplace. Breastfeeding was perceived to be a mother’s responsibility and a private issue. As a result, most participants stopped breastfeeding prior to or immediately upon return to work after maternity leave; 3) Barriers to breastfeeding continuation, such as the absence of a conversation about infant feeding plans between managers and mothers; and 4) Recommendations to improve breastfeeding support at work from an individual, organisational and national level. Conclusion: Our study contributions emphasise that breastfeeding support from managers should begin prior to the mother taking maternity leave, and that in addition to providing supportive facilities (such as private space and breastmilk storage), immediate supervisor support may be critical in fostering breastfeeding-friendly workplaces for mothers. Management implications for advancing workplace breastfeeding support in the public sector are presented.

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Exploring the Experiences of Middle Income Mothers in Practicing Exclusive Breastfeeding in Nairobi, Kenya

Cited by 24 publications

References 25 publications

Baby‐Friendly Community Initiative—From national guidelines to implementation: A multisectoral platform for improving infant and young child feeding practices and integrated health services

Baby‐Friendly Community Initiative—From national guidelines to implementation: A multisectoral platform for improving infant and young child feeding practices and integrated health services

Experiences of workplace breastfeeding in a provincial government setting: A qualitative exploratory study among managers and mothers in South Africa

Experiences of workplace breastfeeding in a provincial government setting: A qualitative exploratory study among managers and mothers in South Africa

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