Abstract
Background: Despite the health, social and economic benefits of breastfeeding (BF) for both mother and child are well established and accepted throughout the world, the prevalence of breast feeding worldwide has not met the optimal target of WHO recommendation.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of breastfeeding and determinants of not continuing initiated breast feeding among Saudi females.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the primary healthcare centers' clinics and outpatient pediatric clinics of Abha maternity and children hospital, Saudi Arabia. It included a random sample of Saudi mothers with children aged up to two years of life. A validated questionnaire was utilized for data collection. It included three main parts: socio demographic data, the medical and health condition for the mother and current child and the attitudes of mother toward BF, BF pattern for the last child, and reasons for discontinuity of BF.
Results: The study included 276 mothers. The majority of them (88.1%) were aged between 20 and 39 years and were Saudi nationals (90.2%). History of receiving any health education about breast feeding was observed among the majority of the participants (91.7%). The most frequently reported source of health education was self-education through reading (39.1%), followed by doctors (30.4%), nurses (29.6%) and relatives/friends (27.7%). Overall, slightly more than half of them (51.1%) expressed a positive attitude towards breast feeding; particularly non-Saudi mothers (adjusted odds ratio "aOR":0.44, and those whose main source of information was nurses or self-education (aOR: 0.27 and 0.12, respectively). The majority of the participating women (86.2%) initiated breastfeeding for their newborns. Among them, 80.7% discontinued BF; particularly Saudi mothers (aOR: 0.08). mothers with higher education (aOR: 5.05-10.21), governmental employees (aOR: 3.51), those living in a separate house (aOR: 2.21), delivered by cesarean section (aOR: 11.14), reported NICU admission of their newborns (aOR: 9.13) and those who expressed a negative attitude towards BF (aOR: 0.25). The commonest reported causes of discontinuation of BF among the participants were thinking that breast milk is not enough (39.9%), going back to work (38.5%) and thinking that baby will be demanding on breastfeeding (13.3%).
Conclusion: Initiation of breastfeeding was very highly practiced by mothers in Abha city, Saudi Arabia. However, its discontinuation before the recommended time is also a highly reported practice.