ABSTRACT

Exclusive breastfeeding provides many benefits to both infants and mothers. Despite the

introduction of laws aimed at protecting the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, the

coverage of exclusive breastfeeding remains low, particularly for working mothers. This

study examines the influence of family support and work environment on the attitude and

breastfeeding practice of mothers working in government and private establishments in

Uyo, Akwa thorn State. The study was a cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling

technique was used to select a total of 317 respondents which are all women. Data on

socio-demographic/economic characteristics, mother's breastfeeding practices, attitude of

the respondents towards breastfeeding, family support to breastfeeding mothers,

breastfeeding and work environment of the respondents were collected using structured

and validated questionnaire. The IBM SPSS version 20 computer programme was used to

analyze the data. Significant relationship was judged at p 0.05. Data obtained were

described using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Correlation analysis

was used to analyze the relationship between mothers' attitude, family, co-workers and

employer/manager! supervisor support towards exclusive breastfeeding. Result from the

study showed that more than half (44.2%) of the mothers are between the age bracket of

36-45 years and 89.7% of them are married. However, only few (31.9%) working

mothers practiced exclusive for 6 months. Majority (83.7%) the respondents had an

indifferent attitude towards breast feeding. Furthermore, 68.1% of the working mothers

received a moderate support from their family while 26.2% received a high support from

their family members. The working mothers received the highest support from their

husband. Meanwhile, more than half (5 6.2%) of them received a moderate support from

their co-workers while 67.9% received a low support from their

employer/manager/supervisor. However, there was a significant relationship between

family support and mothers attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding. There was a

significant but negative relationship between co-workers support

employer/manager/supervisor and mothers attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding. A

significant but negative relationship was also found between breastfeeding practice and

co-workers support towards breastfeeding. Family and workplace support are crucial in

enabling working mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding. Thus enhancing family and

work place support is needed to support the duration of exclusive breastfeeding.

Providing nursing care to increase the quality of exclusive breastfeeding practice is

recommended to mothers who take care of children aged 9-12 months. Interventions that

promote exclusive breastfeeding should also focus on involving the husband and other

family members in health care programs related to breastfeeding.