Breastfeeding Experience Among Health Care Professionals At Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is the single most life impacting gift that a mother can give her baby at birth. The benefits have been widely documented. It is the most important determinant of child survival and prevention of childhood infection. It allows mother and baby to bond in a special way that cannot be matched, since it meets both nutritional and nurturing needs. Although knowledgeable in the benefits of breast milk, health professionals have been identified as a high risk group for early cessation of breast feeding. In this regard, work has been noted to be the major factor that interferes with breastfeeding. Objective: The purpose of this study was to find out the proportion of health professionals working at Kenyatta National Hospital who exclusively breastfeed for the first six months. In addition to that, to find out the breastfeeding practices of health care professionals at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Design: Cross sectional descriptive study design. Method: Survey of health care professionals with children below three years of age at K.N.H. was carried out using a semi structured self-administered questionnaire exploring their own experiences with breastfeeding. Results: There were 139 study subjects obtained from the different departments within KNH; whereby 49 were residents and 90 were nurses. The proportion of female health professionals who exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months of age was 29.2%. However, when asked about their intention to exclusively breastfeed for the same period, it was noted to be at 85% and furthermore, those that had a prenatal plan about breastfeeding were 82%. Most of the respondents (69.5%) breastfed within the first hour of delivery implying that majority of the babies were initiated to breast milk almost immediately. Despite majority (94.3%) of the health care professionals recommending exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months to their colleagues, family and patients only 63% thought that this was actually practical. Majority of the respondents, 81.3% of the respondent said that there was a decrease in the amount of breast milk on returning to duty after maternal leave but 2/3 made some effort to ensure that their babies continued to get breast milk during this

period. Finally, 54% of the respondents said there was special consideration on allocation of duties due to the fact that they were exclusively breastfeeding when you went back to work. Conclusion Proportion of female health professionals who exclusively breastfeed is 29.2%. This is largely attributed to return to work and unavailability of supportive breastfeeding policy. There was little consideration on allocation of duties due to the fact that they were within the exclusively breastfeeding period after they went back to work from their maternity leave. Recommandations : To form a programme that supports breastfeeding health professionals when they return to work by taking into account their work schedule and providing nursing rooms and breast milk storage facilities.