The comparison of knowledge, attitude, practice and social support between exclusive and non exclusive breastfeeding of Maldivian mother

Objectives: To find out the proportion of the exclusive and non exclusive breastfeeding primi gravida mothers who delivered at government hospitals of Maldives. To compare the knowledge, attitude, practice and social support of exclusive and non exclusive breastfeeding groups. Design: Descriptive study. Setting: The government hospitals of Maldives. Subjects: All primi gravida mothers who had normal vaginal deliveries (n=300) from 1st February 2000 to 31st August 2000. Method: A structural self administered questionnaire was used for data collection of primi gravida mothers. Results: The proportion of mothers who were giving exclusive breastfeeding was 21.7% and non exclusive breastfeeding was 78.3% (95% Cl 17.1-26.7%). The recent practice of these mothers showed that they were giving prelacteal feeds and among the most common fluids were water and fruit juice. The proportion of mothers who had adequate knowledge was more in the exclusive group than the non exclusive group and difference was statistically significnat (p=0.001). Although positive attitude and provision of social support was more in exclusive group (83.1% vs 74.5% and 93.8% vs 92.3%), they were not statistically significant. (p=0.187 and p=0.794). Over all Maldivian mothers have positive attitude towards breastfeeding and good social support. Implication: The results of the study will have a positive impact on the area of exclusive breastfeeding in Maldives. It will provide information for the need of futher development of knowledge of the mothers, health care workers, and strengthen social support system in the view of the future changing pattern of Maldivian social life which will in turn change the attitude of new generation of the mothers.