Browsing by Author "Nangolo, Ruusa Megameno"

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    Factors that promote exclusive breastfeeding amongst mothers at a hospital in Windhoek, Namibia
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Nangolo, Ruusa Megameno; Crowley, Talitha; Robertson, Anneline E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Nursing & Midwifery.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) refers to the practice of giving a newborn infant only breast milk up to the age of six months. EBF rates remains low at 42% globally and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 823 000 infant deaths can be avoided annually if EBF is universally implemented. The WHO targets an EBF rate of 70% globally by 2030 and the Namibian rate was only 19% in 2017. There is limited information in Namibia on the factors promoting EBF. The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors that promote EBF amongst mothers at a public health facility in Windhoek, Namibia. Methods: A quantitative, cross‐sectional and comparative descriptive design was used. The target population was all mothers aged 18 years or older, with infants aged between 0 and 6 months who attended the public health care facility within the three months’ study period. The researcher collected data from 270 mothers. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed with the assistance of a biostatistician using descriptive and inferential statistics. Ethical considerations of the rights to self-determination, confidentiality, anonymity, as well as the right to protection from harm were observed. Ethics approval was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of Stellenbosch University (S19/06/112) and from the Research Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia (17/3/3/RMN) prior to data collection. Results: The study revealed that the overall prevalence of EBF was 87.8% (n=237) among the participants. No significant socio-demographic or sociocultural predictors of EBF were identified. Among the biophysical factors, having more than two pregnancies and more than two children were found to be significant predictors of EBF (OR=2.9, CI=1.0 to 8.4, p=0.05), (OR=3.2, CI=1.0 to 10.1, p=0.05). The mothers had an average knowledge score of 76.3% (SD 10.7) and an average attitude score of 76.2% (SD 7.8) with no significant difference in the scores between the EBF group and the non-EBF group. Conclusion: The prevalence of EBF in this study was high compared with the national prevalence and may be an indication that if mothers can be encouraged to attend maternal health services, the general EBF prevalence can increase. It appears if having more than two children promotes EBF practices and that other factors may have a smaller effect on EBF practices as contradictory results were reported in the literature. Therefore, it can be recommended that the current breastfeeding policies should be implemented in full to support mothers, in particular new mothers. Health education on EBF should be provided during the perinatal period and up to six months to ensure that mothers practice EBF.