Knowledge, Attitude and Intending Practice on Breastfeeding Among Clinical Medical Students in Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is a basic human activity, vital to infant and maternal health. A good breastfeeding advice from health professionals can influence a mother's decision to initiate and maintain breastfeeding positively. This study is aimed at assessing clinical medical students' knowledge, attitudes and intending practice towards breastfeeding. Method: Consecutive sampling method was used. Results: Knowledge on the definition of the term EBF was correct in 120 (69.4%) of the students, 47 (27.2%) of them got it wrong while 6 (3.45) did not known the definition of EBF. The early advantages of EBF was known by over 70% of the students and the contraindications to BF was gotten by over 60% of the students. The students' knowledge about some false notion on not giving EBM to sick babies, cause of nipple crack and inadequacy of BF for twin deliveries were good with over 70% of them knowing the right thing concerning these. The attitude of the students towards BF was very good with over 80% of them having good attitude towards BF, however 16 (9.3%) will not BF for two years because they believe that it will make their breast to sag, while 23 (13.3) did not know if that is true and 62 (77.5%) disagree with the statement. The intending practice of BF was generally good among the students with over 90% agreeing to do initiate BF within 6 hours of delivery and practicing EBF for 6 months. The intending practice of BF was generally good among the students with over 90% agreeing to initiate BF within 6 hours of delivery and practicing EBF for 6 months. The major factors influencing decisions for EBF includes WHO recommendations 108 (48.6%) out of 222 multiple responses, closely followed by mothers who are still in school for further studies 59 (26.6%). Family advice was the least factor with only 2 (0.9%). The major factors influencing decisions for termination of breastfeeding includes WHO recommendations 75 (35.0%) out of 222 multiple responses, closely followed by mothers who are still in school for further studies 44 (20.6%. Family advice was the least factor with only 4 (1.9%). Conclusion. The knowledge, attitude and intending practice on BF by the students were good, but more needs to be done in the area of knowledge because they are the future doctors who will play an important role in educating the society on breastfeeding.

Intention to Breastfeed Among Female Students of Tertiary Institutions In Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria.

“…Intention is an important antecedent of behavior [25], and surprisingly, the intention to breastfeed by participants in this study is abysmally poor at 34% when compared with reports from the study by Shehu and Shehu in Jos [19] who reported intention to breastfeed of about 66% among clinical medical students. The study by Padmanabhan et al [23] in India showed as high 98.4% of the participants responding a rmatively, the study by Hamade et al [25] among Syrian and Lebanese female undergraduate university students reported 76.4% and 88.9% respondents respectively con rming their intention to breastfeed their babies.…”

“…Among the women of reproductive age groups, reliable information about breastfeeding are often times rst heard during pregnancy during antenatal care provided that the lady registers for antenatal care and by which time many of them could have been wrongly informed and wrong opinions about breastfeeding already formed which might be di cult to change. The ndings of this study are not different from that of Shehu and Shehu in Jos [19] among clinical medical students, Padmanabhan et al [23] among female college students in India and Anjun et al [24] among medical students in Pakistan.…”

“…The study revealed that just a little above average of the respondents (58.8%) had understanding of what exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) means, this is quite less than the 69% recorded by Shehu and Shehu in their study among clinical medical students in Jos [19].This is not unexpected as the participants in this study are not studying medical related courses as it has been documented that students in health-related majors have signi cantly higher levels of breastfeeding knowledge [22]. The nding may also be a true re ection of what obtains in the larger society.…”

“…Since the decisions and opinions about breastfeeding are formed well before conception, it may be more pro table to target the young ladies, trying to understand their knowledge base, beliefs, misconceptions and perceptions of breastfeeding which may serve as hindrances to the uptake and successful practice of breastfeeding in that huge population [18]. This population of future mothers have been studied extensively in developed countries, however most of the studies conducted in developing countries had focused on medical and nursing students who by the virtue of their professional studies should have some knowledge about breastfeeding [19,20,21]. There are very few studies on intention to breastfeed among female non-medical undergraduates in developing countries like Nigeria, hence the reason for this study.…”

Knowledge on breast feeding and its techniques among health care workers in a tertiary health centre

“…Maryam Shehu et al14 Present study shows that 85% of medical interns and 30% of nursing staffs were aware of nutritive benefits of colostrum. Study done by Sanjay Kumar Bhasin et al, showed that almost 92.7% of community health workers had knowledge about the nutritive benefits of colostrum 15.…”