Knowledge and Perception of Appropriate Breastfeeding Practices
Transcription
Knowledge and Perception of Appropriate Breastfeeding Practices
Sciknow Publications Ltd. International Journal of Maternal and Child Health ©Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) IJMCH 2015, 3(2):56-64 DOI: 10.12966/ijmch.05.01.2015 Knowledge and Perception of Appropriate Breastfeeding Practices among Grandmothers in Northern Ghana Sixtus Aguree1,*, Victor Mogre2, Juventus B. Ziem3, Yahya Mohammed1, and Sulemana Issah1 1 Department of Community Nutrition, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, P.O.Box L 1883, Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana, West Africa 2 Deaprtment of Human Biology, School of Medicine and Health science, University for Development Studies, Tamale 3 Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale *Corresponding author (Email:[email protected]) Abstract- Support offered by grandmothers to new mothers greatly influences their breastfeeding habits. This study was conducted in Tamale, Ghana, to assess the knowledge and perception of grandmothers on breastfeeding. It involved 400 grandmothers purposively selected from the study area between January and April, 2014. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 19.0), with a Chi-square (X2) test performed at a P<0.05 considered significant. The results showed that: 76% of respondents were aware of appropriate breastfeeding practices; 88.2% were aware of exclusive breastfeeding practice; 55% gave advice to mothers on exclusive breastfeeding; 61.5% believed that exclusive breastfeeding helped promote the health of both baby and mother; and 69.5% said children should be breastfed on demand during the exclusive breastfeeding period. On early initiation of exclusive breastfeeding, only 42.2% knew that the child should be latched to the breast within 1-hour after delivery. Concerning colostrum, two-thirds of grandmothers believed that it had a protective effect on infants, with 78.2% of them believing that it should be given to the baby whiles the remaining 21.8% believes that it should be discarded. Strong correlations were established between: awareness and knowledge of appropriate breastfeeding practices; and grandmothers‟ knowledge and likelihood of giving advice to mothers. Grandmothers that were aware of appropriate breastfeeding practices were more likely to perceive it as good than those that were unaware of it (X²=65.506, P<0.001). Knowledge level of breastfeeding practices among grandmothers was high, and they were more likely to have good perception of appropriate breastfeeding practices and gave advice on it to mothers. Key words-Tamale, Grandmothers‟ Knowledge, Grandmothers‟ Perception, Breastfeeding Practices 1. Introduction Breastfeeding has always been acknowledged as the optimal way to feed an infant and is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for all mothers unless medically contraindicated. Timely initiation of breastfeeding is critical and exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life is recommended (WHO/UNICEF, 2002). Appropriate breastfee ding is known to confer several benefits on the child and mother, but this sometimes could be influenced by the family (Beznerkerr et al. 2008). Grandmothers, are particularly known to influence child feeding practices (Davies-Adetugbo, 1997; Sear et al., 2000 Aubel et al., 2004; Macharia et al., 2004; Bezner Kerr et al., 2008; Aubel, 2012) and could negatively influence mother‟s decision on breastfeeding (Susin et al., 2005). Breastfeeding practices in Ghana are sub-optimal (GDHS, 2008; ICF Macro 2010; MICS, 2011). In Ghana, grandmothers spend a lot of time with their grandchildren, maternal grandmothers particularly, usually stay with their daughters during the first weeks and sometimes months after birth. They usually bath the baby and spend a great deal of time with these new mothers teaching them the skills of motherhood and including child care. Unfortunately, these grandmothers are left out of the maternal and child health education programs in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana; the focus is usually on the mother of the young child (Aubel et al., 2004; Lee and Garvin, 2003; Waisbord, 2001) done by nurses (in Ghana) for pregnant and lactating mothers during pre-natal and post-natal care respectively. Considering the influential role these grandmo thers play in child care (Bezner Kerr et al. 2008; Aubel, 2012) and decision making regarding child‟s nutrition (Aubel, 2012; Brown et al.2014), it is important that we know their knowledge and perception of breastfeeding practices, as they are sometimes seen as a barrier to breastfeeding practices (Bezner Kerret al. 2007;Bezner Kerr et al., 2008). It reported International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 that sometimes mothers only indicate that they practice exclusive breastfeeding for instance, „to avoid being chastised by hospital staff‟ though in real practice they do not practice proper exclusive breastfeeding (BerzerKerr et al., 2008), partially due to the influence of these grandmothers. An understanding of the knowledge level and perception of grandmothers would be helpful in our effort at improving optimal exclusive breastfeeding practices, particularly in Ghana. There is however, scarcity of information on grandmother‟s knowledge and perception of breastfeeding practices in Ghana. This present study assessed grandmothers‟ knowledge and perception of breastfeeding practices, including timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding, and as well as complimentary feeding practices within the Tamale Metropolis, Northern Region, Ghana. 2. Subjects and Methods A cross-sectional study design was used to assess the knowledge and perception of grandmothers on appropriate breastfeeding practices in the Tamale Metropolis. Tamale is the Northern Regional capital, Ghana. The metropolis which is the major urban area in the region occupies an area of about 70,384 km2 and consists of the Tamale Township and 30 surrounding towns and villages. Dagombas are the main inhabitants and are predominantly Muslims. Most women in this area are into farming and/or trading. Using the Snedecor and Cochran (1989) formula, with confidence interval of 95%( at a z-score of 1.96) and an assumed prevalence (awareness of appropriate breastfeeding practices among grandmothers in Ghana) of 50% and an error level set at 5% we arrived at 384 as the required sample size. But to cater for incomplete and missing questions, we increased the sample size to 400.The 400 grandmothers were purposively selected through house-to-house visit across the metropolis. Grandmothers were included in this study if the consented to participate. A structured semi-closed ended questionnaire was used to gather the information. The local language (Dagbani) was used in administering the questionnaire since most of the participants were more familiar with it. This was done by one of the authors. The questionnaire was made up of three 57 sections, section „A‟, the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent, containing variables like age, religion, marital status, ethnicity, occupation and educational level. Section „B‟ assessed the awareness and knowledge level of the respondents on appropriate breastfeeding practices and section „C‟ assessed the perception of the respondents on appropriate breastfeeding practices. The questionnaire was pretested, finalized and then used for the final data collection. All participating women consented to participate in the study. Microsoft excels and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 19.0) was used in analyzing the data. The results from the analysis were displayed as frequency tables for easy understanding. To find out the knowledge level of grandmothers on WHO recommended breastfeeding practices, a score of 1 was given for each correct answer to each closed-ended question and 2 points given for very correct and clear explanatory answers to opened-ended questions. A total of 20 points were allocated for the awareness and knowledge levels of the respondents; a score of up to half (10) of the total points was considered low knowledge and a score of more than half (greater 10 point) was considered as high knowledge of breastfeeding practices. Also, a total of five points were allocated for grandmothers perception of which of three point and or below was considered a negative perception of breastfeeding practices and a score greater than three considered a positive perception of breastfeeding practices. A Chi- square(X²) analysis was carried out to determine the association between the socio-demographic characteristics and the knowledge and perception levels of the respondents. Descriptive analysis of means and the standard deviations were also obtained. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. 3. Results Presented in Table 1 are the background characteristics of the respondents. The respondents were less frequently to be younger than 40 years (2.2%), frequently followed the Islamic religion (85.8%), were married (61.8%) and had no formal education (61.5%) Table1. Background information of respondents (N=400) Variable Age(completed years) <40 40-60 61-80 81-100 Religion Islam Christianity ATR N % 9 213 133 45 2.2 53.2 33.2 11.2 343 47 9 85.8 11.8 2.2 58 International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 Others Marital status Single Married Separated Widow Divorce Ethnicity Dagomba Gonja Frafra Mamprusi Others Occupation Farmer Civil servant Service worker Education/research Health care provider Trader Others Educational level No formal education Primary Middle/JHS SHS/vocational/technical Tertiary Respondents‟ knowledge and awareness level on breastfe eding practices are as presented in Table 2. Majority (76.2%) of the respondents reported having awareness on appropriate breastfeeding practices. Thirty-two percent of the respondents reported appropriate breastfeeding practice as giving water to 1 0.2 8 247 19 113 13 2.0 61.8 4.8 28.2 3.2 276 30 16 12 66 69 7.5 4.0 3.0 16.5 46 23 19 7 32 184 89 11.5 5.8 4.8 1.8 8.0 46.0 22.2 246 52 35 12 55 61.5 13.0 8.8 3.0 13.8 the child before the age of 6 months. Even though over 70% of the respondents reported breastfeeding children less than 6 months with only breast milk, another 20.8% lack of knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding. Table 2. Awareness and knowledge of respondents (N=400) Variable Are you aware of appropriate breastfeeding practices? Yes No The appropriate breastfeeding practice in the following Exclusive breastfeeding Giving water to children under 6 months Discarding the colostrum Timely initiation Are you awareness of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) recommendations? Yes No Knowledge on EBF Breastfeeding children under 6 months with only Brest milk without water I don’t know Is it allowed to take prescribed N % 305 95 76.2 23.8 247 129 23 1 61.8 32.2 5.8 0.2 353 47 88.2 11.8 317 79.2 83 20.8 International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 Medicines EBF period? Yes No Do you give advice and practice of EBF to mothers? Yes No What is the appropriate time to stop exclusive breastfeeding? before 6 months at the beginning of the 6 months after 6 months I don’t know Number of times to breastfeed in a day during the first 6 months 0-3 4-7 8-12 on demand Importance of exclusive breastfeeding improves the health status of the child it has no use I don’t know When to latch the child to the breast after birth within the first hour within the first day within the second day within the third day Awareness of the change in breast milk Yes No Importance of colostrum Protectant it has no use I don’t know what is done to the colostrum give to the baby discard it Period of breastfeeding (months) <18 >=18 <=24 >24<=30 >30<=36 Others Time to introduce complementary foods <6 >=6<=9 >9<=12 >12 Suitable complementary foods Porridge Tz Yam Others 357 43 89.2 10.8 222 178 55.5 44.5 248 68 22 62 62.0 17.0 5.5 15.5 27 61 34 278 6.8 15.2 8.5 69.5 246 66 88 61.5 16.5 22.0 169 180 37 14 42.2 45 9.2 3.5 374 26 93.5 6.5 264 40 96 66.0 10.0 24.0 313 87 78.2 21.8 29 141 157 54 19 7.2 35.2 39.2 13.5 4.8 149 196 48 7 37.2 49.0 12.0 1.8 294 39 3 64 73.5 9.8 0.8 16.0 59 60 International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 Thickness of semi-solid foods flows from the spoon drops from the spoon Others Given fruits as snacks Yes No Shown in Table 3 are respondents‟ perceptions on approp riate breastfeeding practices. About 39.8% said appropriate breastfeeding practices are very good practices and 29.8% thought that, it is a good practices. Only 8% of them did not 258 82 60 64.5 20.5 15 277 123 69.2 30.8 know about appropriate breastfeeding practices. Grandmothe rs give varying levels of support to young mothers; about 57% said they demonstrate to young mothers how to breast their young child. Table 3. Perceptions on appropriate breastfeeding practices (N=400) Variable What is your thought about appropriate breastfeeding practices? very good Good Bad I don’t know Awareness of a role play by grandmothers Yes No What role do you play in breastfeeding of grandchildren? I demonstrate to mothers how to breastfeed I give financial support I gives emotional support I give more than one of the above options Others Total Missing Why don‟t you play any role in breastfeeding Nothing not my duty Others Total Missing The knowledge score as depicted in Table 4 below indicates that 69.2% had a high knowledge level with regards to appropriate breastfeeding practices. Higher knowledge levels were seen in the older age women, who more likely to N % 159 119 90 32 39.8 29.8 22.5 8.0 368 32 92.0 8.0 228 57.0 12 91 12 26 369 31 3.0 22.8 3.0 6.5 92.2 7.8 7 6 18 31 369 1.8 1.5 4.5 7.8 92.2 be windowed. Those working in the education sector/research sector all had higher knowledge of appropriate breastfeeding practices. Table 4. Knowledge score of the study population and associations with SDF (N=400) Knowledge score 0 to 10 11 to 20 SDF N n (%) 123 (30.8) 277 (69.2) Low Knowledge n (%) Age(complete years) Mean (SD) 8.407 (1.644) 13.744 (1.914) High Knowledge Statistical test n (%) International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 <40 40-60 61-80 81-100 Religion Islam Christianity ATR Others marital status Single Married Separated Widow Divorce Ethnicity Dagomba Gonja Frafra Mamprusi Others Occupation Farmer Civil servant Service worker Education/research Health care provider Trader Others Educational level No formal education Primary Middle/JHS SHS/vocational/tech Tertiary 61 9 213 133 45 2(22.2) 53(24.9) 44(33.1) 24(53.3) 7(77.8) 160(75.1) 89(66.9) 21(46.7) X²= 14.868 p=0.002 343 47 9 1 109(31.8) 10(21.3) 4(44.4) 0(0) 234(68.2) 37(78.7) 5(55.6) 1(100) X²= 3.388 p=0.336 8 247 19 113 13 2(25.0) 62(25.1) 7(36.8) 49(36.8) 3(23.1) 6(75.0) 185(74.9) 12(63.2) 64(63.2) 10(76.9) X²= 12.958 p=0.011 276 30 16 12 66 98(35.5) 7(23.3) 2(12.5) 2(16.7) 14(21.2) 178(64.5) 23(76.7) 14(87.5) 10(83.3) 52(78.8) X²= 10.742 p=0.057 46 23 19 7 32 184 89 18(39.1) 3(13.1) 2(10.5) 0(0) 1(3.1) 55(29.9) 44(49.4) 28(60.9) 20(86.9) 17(89.5) 7(100) 31(95.9) 129(70.1) 45(50.6) X²= 37.790 p<0.001 246 52 35 12 55 95(38.6) 18(34.6) 6(17.1) 1(8.3) 3(5.5) 151(61.4) 34(65.4) 29(82.9) 11(91.7) 52(94.5) X²= 29.918 p<0.001 Table 5 presents the perception of grandmothers and how that is associated with socio-demographic characteristics. About 64.5% had poor/negative perception of appropriate breastfeeding practices. Older age groups were more likely to have negative perception of the appropriate breastfeeding practices. Those who work in the health sector or the educati on/research sector appear to have a positive perception of appropriate breastfeeding practices. The knowledge and perception scores were also correlated as shown in Table 6 below. Table 5. Perception score of the study population and associations with socio-demographic factors (N=400) Perception score 0 to 3 (Negative) 4 to 5 (positive) Socio-Demographic Factors Age(completed years) <40 40-60 61-80 81-100 Religion N 9 213 133 45 n(%) 258 (64.5) 142 (35.5) perception n % 5(55.6) 127(59.6) 91(68.4) 35(77.8) Mean(SD) 2.29 (0.822) 4.020 (0.155) positive Statistical test Perception n (%) 4(44.4) 86(40.4) 42(31.6) 10(22.2) X²= 6.884 p=0.076 62 International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 Islam Christianity ATR Others Marital status Single Married Separated Widow Divorce Ethnicity Dagomba Gonja Frafra Mamprusi Others Occupation Farmer Civil servant Service worker Education/research Health care provider Trader Others Educational level No formal education Primary middle/JHS SHS/vocational/tech Tertiary 343 47 9 1 213(62.1) 22(46.8) 5(55.6) 0(0) 112(37.9) 25(53.2) 4(44.4) 1(100) X²= 9.770 p=0.021 8 247 19 113 13 3(37.5) 147(59.5) 14(73.7) 89(78.8) 5(38.5) 5(62.5) 247(40.5) 5(26.3) 24(21.2) 8(61.5) X²= 19.815 p=0.001 276 30 16 12 66 195(70.7) 15(50) 16(50) 6(50) 34(51.5) 81(29.3) 15(50) 16(50) 6(50) 32(48.5) X²= 15.125 p=0.010 46 23 19 7 32 184 89 28(60.9) 11(47.8) 9(47.4) 3(42.9) 7(21.9) 124(67.4) 76(85.4) 18(39.1) 12(52.2) 10(52.6) 4(57.1) 25(78.1) 60(32.6) 13(14.6) X²= 49.956 p<0.001 246 52 35 12 55 183(74.4) 33(63.5) 21(60) 5(41.7) 16(29.1) 63(25.6) 19(36.6) 14(40) 7(58.3) 39(70.9) X²= 43.692 p<0.001 Table 6.knowledge and perception association Knowledge Low High rank on perception Negative (%) Positive(%) 104(84.6) 19(15.4) 154(55.6) 123(44.4) 4. Discussion More than half(53%) of the respondents were within the age range of 40 to 60years, which is normal given that the median age of married women within 25-49 years is about 20years (GDHS,2008) and so could have grandchildren on or before 40years. Nearly all participants were ever-married (Table 1) with seven in 10 participants being Dogombas (native inhabitants). Nearly half (46) of the respondents were traders. More than three-quarters said they are aware of what appropriate breastfeeding practices are (in this case, timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding and timely introduction of complimentary feeding). Nearly 9 in 10 have heard of EBF though only 8 in 10 could explain what the meaning of EBF was. There was generally low knowledge of timely initiation of breastfeeding with only a little over 4 in 10 knowing that it should be started within the first one hour after statistical test X²=31.192 p<0.001 birth, with six in 10 indicating that exclusive breastfeeding should stop before the 6th month after birth whiles nearly 2 in ten indicating that EBF has no use (is not important). Also nearly 2 in 10 did not know the importance of colostrum to the child with a similar number of respondents indicating that colostrum should be discarded and not given to the child (Table 2).This is consistent with the findings of Das et al.(2013) findings, where more than one in five mothers indicated that they discarded colostrum. This practice maybe due to their lack of understanding of the usefulness of colostrum as captured here by some comments made during the interview by respondents; the first breast milk[colostrum] is dirty and it should not be given to the child, the baby ran [had diarrhea] when given the colostrum. However, some local practices are carried out to sustain both the mother and the child as noted here; the mother is given local medicine (concoction) to facilitate the letdown of the second breast milk. The new born baby is either International Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2015) 56-64 given to a breast feeding mother to be breastfed or a mixture of sheabutter with warm water is used as a feed whenever the baby cries till thesecond breast milk of the mother start to flow, the mother is also advised to take ‘zeizeri’ (light soup with plenty dawadawa) in other to facilitate the letdown of the second breast milk, to heal the wounds after delivery and to replenish the blood loss during delivery (Participant, Tamale). More than 9 in 10 of the grandmothers indicated that they play a role in the breastfeeding of their grandchildren with about 2 in 10 having a bad (negative) perception of appropriate breastfeeding practices in general. More than 9 in ten indicated that they give some form of support to young mothers (their daughters or daughters-in-law) in different forms, including but not limited to financial, emotional support and demonstration on how to breastfeed their children(Table 3). This is consistent with the several studies in different parts of the world, where grandmothers or elderly women were seen to play significant roles in child nutrition and health (Sear et al., 2000; Waisbord, 2001;Aubel, 2004; Beznerkerr et al. 2008;Lee and Garvin, 2003;Aubel, 2012;Brown et al., 2014). Close to seven in 10 of the respondentshad high knowledge score (Mean, SD; 13.7, 1.9 out of a total score of 20) (Table 4) and nearly two-thirds had negative perception of appropriate breastfeeding practices. A number of demographic characteristics were seen to be associated with knowledge and perception scores. There were significant differences in knowledge and perception scores with respect to respondents‟ marital status, occupation and educational levels (P< 0.05; Table 4 and Table 5). However, knowledge score but not perception score was significantly different for age whiles perception score was significantly different with respect to one‟s religious group (P<0.05; Table 4 and Table 5). Associated between knowledge score and perception score statistically significant (X2= 31.192, p< 0.001; Table 6). What was also apparent from this study was the perception that some of these grandmothers had; that, they were not exclusively breastfed but they grew up well and also that their children (mothers of the young children) were not exclusively breastfed but they too are healthy and so, why should they exclusively breastfeed their grandchildren. They further argued that they did not see any differences in the nutritional status between the mothers who claim they are breastfeeding their children exclusively compared to those who do not exclusive breastfed their grandchildren. This is captured in the following statement “I was not given water but I grew well, when you practice exclusive breastfeeding some of the children tend to behave strangely” (study participant Tamale). This was echoed by several other grandmothers in the study. This could help explain why we have high knowledge level of the appropriate breastfeeding practices but a considerably low level of positive perception of breastfeeding practices among grandmothers. This means that even as the knowledge level increase, we cannot conclude that some mothers will not practice the exclusive breastfeeding either because they have 63 negative perception about it or they will be influenced by the grandmothers, not to follow what they are told at the antenatal centers. This call for a concerted effort at improving the capacity of these mothers and other grandmothers on exclusive breastfeeding during the antenatal care or child nutrition education programs. This could be done by involving grandmothers and allowing them to share their experiences with the health staff whiles addressing their concerns. This will likely lead to an active participation of the grandmothers in the breastfeeding of their grandchildren breastfeeding and could result in a likely increase in the practice of breastfeeding practices as reported in a study by Aubel (2004). According to that study the involvement of grandmothers in nutrition education programs resulted in an increase in the number of grandmothers willing to encourage exclusive breastfeeding for their grandchildren. In conclusion, grandmothers have some knowledge and experiences in appropriate breastfeeding practices that need to be tabbed. 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