ABSTRACT

 This study sought to find out the influence offamily support and work environment on the attitude and breastfeeding practices of mothers working in Umuahia Abia State. A crosssectional method of survey was employed using a structured questionnaire comprising of the socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers, family structure of the mothers, breastfeeding practices, mothers attitude towards breastfeeding, family supportive practices towards breastfeeding, work environment and its level ofsupports towards breastfeeding. Multistage sampling method was used to select respondents from the various establishments (banks, hospitals/ health centres, LGA/ministries). A total sample size of 304 working mothers who were nursing their babies of 3-24months of age was studied. Basic descriptive statistics was run (frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation) and association between variables was analysed using bivariate analysis. Majority (87.8%) of the mothers initiated breastfeeding immediately after birth, more than half (52.3%) exclusively breastfed up to six months but only 11.5% breastfed up to 19-24months as recommended. The result further showed that 74.7% ofthe mothers had indifferent attitude towards breastfeeding while only 24.7% had positive attitude towards breastfeeding. More than half (56.6%) of the mothers received moderate support from their family while only 39.8% received high support. The highest level ofsupport was received from the husbands with a mean score of 3.55(SD = 0.70). Majority (67.6%) received moderate support from their co-workers while only 21.7% received high support. More than half (53%) of the mothers received moderate support, from their employer while only 12.6% received high support meanwhile female workers gave the highest support to the mothers with a mean score of 2.55 (SD = 0.87). Half(50.0%) ofthe mothers did not have a designated room for breastfeeding at workplace and only 53.6% had a breastfeeding protocol/guideline at their place of work out of which only 31.3% of the workplaces had protocol/guideline that encouraged breastfeeding. There was a positive(r 0.287) and significant (P< 0.01) relationship between mothers attitude and family support and co-workers support (r =.0.212) but no significant relationship was found between mothers attitude and employer/manager/supervisor support towards exclusive breastfeeding. Also family support was found to have a positive (r = 0.435) and significant ( p < 0.01) relationship with breastfeeding practice while no significant relationship was found between breastfeeding practices and co-workers support (r = 0.382) and manager/employer support (r = 0.173). Therefore the more mothers gain support from family and workplace the more likely they were to practice exclusive and continued breastfeeding. The presence offamily support and breastfeeding friendly work environment will help the lactating mothers to increase and prolong their breastfeeding practice and duration.