ABSTRACT

The study determined the maternal breastfeeding knowledge, practice, satisfaction and self- efficacy of breastfeeding mothers in Umuahia South, Abia state. Specifically, the study determined the socio-economic and demographic status of nursing mother, assessed the level of maternal breastfeeding knowledge, maternal breastfeeding satisfaction, maternal self-efficacy in nursing, maternal breastfeeding practices and analyzed the interrelationships between mothers' knowledge, practice, satisfaction, and self-efficacy of nursing mothers in the study area. Cross sectional study design was adopted and a multi stage sampling technique was used to sample 348 respondents. A well-structured and validated question was used for data collection, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson Moment Correlation Analysis. Most (50.57%) of the respondents aged 26-35 years with mean age of 29years and 7month and majority (67.5%) were married. I 0.8% of the respondents had poor knowledge of breastfeeding, 48.5% had average knowledge and. 40.7% had good knowledge of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding mothers in the study area had good breastfeeding practice with an average score of 8.6. Also, a total of 42% and 32.8% of the respondents were always confident and confident in breastfeeding self-efficacy and satisfaction. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between breastfeeding practice and self-efficacy and satisfaction of the mothers with p-value of 0.252, at I% level of significance. A significant relationship also exists between knowledge of breastfeeding and the practice of breastfeeding at 5% level of significance. In conclusion, breastfeeding mothers in the study area had good breastfeeding knowledge and practice as well as confident while breastfeeding. It was therefore recommended that government and nongovernmental agencies should focus on programs that will enlighten mothers further on breastfeeding knowledge and practice especially in the area of continuous breastfeeding of child up to two years.