Knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among antenatal attendees in Uyo, Southern Nigeria

This cross sectional study was conducted at the maternity unit of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo. The aim was to assess the knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among women receiving antenatal care in the teaching hospital. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to two hundred women in the antenatal clinic. Majority of the respondents (69.5%) were between 25-34 years of age, 57.0% were multiparous and 67.7% had attained tertiary level education. Eighty-four women (42.0%) were able to define exclusive breastfeeding correctly while just 7.0% of the respondents knew the ten steps to successful breastfeeding. Only 44.5% of the women practiced exclusive breastfeeding. None of the women belonged to a breastfeeding support group and the most common source of information on exclusive breastfeeding was the antenatal health talks (81.0%). The level of knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding by women in our centre is poor. There is need for large scale health enlightenment of members of the public on exclusive breastfeeding. There is also the need for penodic retraining of relevant health workers on the practice of exclusive breastfeeding and strategies introduced for its regular monitoring and evaluation.