Medicina Comunitária e Educação em Saúde

Abstrato

Current Level and Correlates of Exclusive Breastfeeding among Employed Mothers in Debre Marko’s Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2013

Simachew Hailu, Belayenew Wassie, Dube Jara1*

Introduction: Breast milk promotes sensory and cognitive development, and protects the infant against infectious and chronic disease. Breastfeeding duration was found to be low among working mothers due to reasons like short maternity leave, workplaces were not allowed and even the allowed workplaces were not have privacy for breastfeeding or milk expressing. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess current level and correlates of exclusive breastfeeding among employed mothers in Debre Markos town, Northwest, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 405 employed mothers selected simple random sampling. Data were collected by interview using structured self-administered questionnaire. The analysis was done using SPSS version 16. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify correlates of exclusive breastfeeding. Result: one hundred thirty (34.95%) of mothers were exclusively breastfed their children as per recommended standard. Mother who had flexible time to express breast milk were 4.3 times more likely to exclusively breastfed as compared with those mother who did not, [AOR=4.26(1.97, 9.20)]. Those delivered mother who returned after 4 month of leave were 3.4 times more likely exclusively breastfed as compared to mother who returned after the 2 month, [AOR=3.38, 95% CI: 1.46, 7.87]. Job offers leave was also significantly associated with exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding level among employed mothers was low in town. Flexible time to express breast milk and time to return to work were found to have association with exclusive breastfeeding. It is advisable to give some flexible working hours to express breast milk for mother who have children.