Knowledge and Practice of Breast and Complementary Infant Feeding Among Mothers in Shinasha Culture: The Case of Bullen Woreda, Metekel Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge and practice of breast and complementary infant feedings among mothers of Shinasha culture in Bullen Woreda. The study was undertaken in four kebeles and 80 participants were selected by using convenient sampling. Questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 to compute descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and one-way ANOVA. The result of analysis reveals that mothers were not given any information about infant feeding before birth of the infant and after birth of the infant mothers got information about breast and complementary infant feeding elder mothers. There is no significant difference among mothers on their knowledge and practice of breast and complementary infant feeding on the three categories of age. Mothers lacked sufficient knowledge about importance of breast feeding for breastfeeding mothers and biased in duration of breastfeeding between both sexes of their infants. The knowledge of complementary infant feeding mothers reported that male infants should start complementary foods earlier than female infants. It is concluded that there is no statistically significant difference among mothers by their knowledge level practices on breast and complementary infant feeding on their age groups. Finally, it was recommended that all concerned bodies of the community, health extension workers etc. should take their parts in educating and creating awareness for mothers about breast and complementary infant feeding.