Infant feeding knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers in private health facilities in Alice Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa

dc.contributor.advisorGoon, D Ten
dc.contributor.advisorLast name, First nameen
dc.contributor.authorOyeniran, Aderonke Adepejuen
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-13T00:46:23Z
dc.date.available2026-08-13T00:46:23Z
dc.date.issued2022-07en
dc.description.abstractBackground and aim of the study: Within the global field of health education, it is generally accepted that the topic of breast-feeding is a crucial discussion due to its maternal, infant, and communal benefits. However, certain African countries, such as South Africa, experience certain challenges related to both predictive factors and maternal attitudes to breast-feeding. To improve public awareness and promote the implementation of breast-feeding, these factors should be investigated to highlight the importance of this practice among young mothers. Method: The study utilised a cross-sectional survey by means of a self-administered questionnaire, which was completed by the carefully chosen participants. The collected data were then analysed using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) (frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (logistic regression). The level of significance for the inferential statistics was set at 0.05. Results: A total of 377 infant mothers participated in the study with median age of 30. Most infant mothers that participated in the study were well educated with infant mother 189 having a bachelor’s degree. The findings revealed that mothers of 40 years above are 1.51 times more likely not to breastfeed exclusively compared to mothers of less than 40 years of age (95percent CI, 0.75-2.25). The odds ratio of the incidence of decision in breastfeeding for participants with breastfeeding and formula milk was 1.66 (95percent CI, 0.87-2.53). In term of family support, mothers who don’t receive family support were 3.43 times more likely no to breastfeed. The result also revealed that mothers with breast pain were 0.98 more likely not to breastfeed. Conclusion: This study concludes that infant mothers are well informed about breastfeeding. This study also revealed that factors such as infant mothers’ knowledge about breastfeeding, medical health of both mother and infant and cultural norms can go a long way in influencing the decision of mothers to breastfeeding their infant or not.,Thesis (MPH) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022en
dc.formatcomputeren
dc.formatonline resourceen
dc.formatapplication/pdfen
dc.format1 online resource (101 leaves)en
dc.formatpdfen
dc.identifier.citationOyeniran, Aderonke Adepeju. 2022-07en
dc.identifier.othervital:66315en
dc.identifier.otherhttp://hdl.handle.net/10353/27139en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/4674
dc.language.isoEnglishen
dc.publisherUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.publisherFaculty of Health Sciencesen
dc.rightsUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserveden
dc.rightsOpen Accessen
dc.subjectInfants -- Nutritionen
dc.subjectBaby foodsen
dc.subjectBreastfeedingen
dc.subjectGrahamstown (South Africa)en
dc.subjectEastern Cape (South Africa)en
dc.subjectSouth Africaen
dc.subjectHistoryen
dc.titleInfant feeding knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers in private health facilities in Alice Town, Eastern Cape, South Africaen
dc.title.alternativeInfant feeding knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers in private health facilities in Alice Town, Eastern Cape, South Africaen
dc.typeMaster's thesesen
dc.typetexten

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