The Factors Influencing Breastfeeding Practice among Rural Nursing Mothers at the Gatanga Sub-County of Murang’a County

Background: Many scholars have advocated for exclusive breastfeeding for infants below six months of age. In Kenya, most rural based mothers normally wean or introduce their babies to supplemental feeds before attainment of six months of age. Therefore, there is need to understand the factors influencing breastfeeding practices during infancy and early childhood in a rural setup like the Gatanga sub-county of Kenya. Objectives: This study aimed at identifying the factors influencing breastfeeding during infancy and early childhood in a rural setup; determine the types of foods used for supplementary feeding and identification of methods. Methods: This descriptive mixed methods questionnaire based cross-sectional survey in Gatanga sub-county of Murang’a County involved purposefully selected 176 mothers of children below 5 years of age from among nursing mothers in the four villages. Results: The majority (40.3%) of the respondents were aged between 25-34 years of age followed by 38.6% of the respondents that were aged between 15-24 years. A good number (80.7%) of breastfeeding mothers in the region have gone through formal education with just an alarming (19.3%) having not had gone through any formal education. Forty eight percent (48.9%) of the breast-feeding mothers were unemployed. Nearly all nursing mothers (97%) received information on breastfeeding and its benefits while only 3% (5) revealed having not had any information concerning infant feeding. In addition, 87.5% (n=8) of the mothers with formal employments pointed out that their work place environment did not provided facilities such as workplace nursery. Exclusive breastfeeding was noted among 41.9% (n=43) of the mothers who had children of 0-6 months of age. While 30.2% of the mothers supplement breast milk with other types of milk, especially cow milk, about 11.6% indicated to supplement breast milk with other liquid foods such as glucose solution, sugar solution or fruit juice be it fresh or commercial. Maternal and contextual factors influence breastfeeding practice as well as the age of the baby. Conclusion: Breastfeeding practice among the nursing mothers in Gatanga sub-county is good however, it falls far below the recommended the World Health Organization’s recommendations. Background: Many scholars have advocated for exclusive breastfeeding for infants below six months of age. In Kenya, most rural based mothers normally wean or introduce their babies to supplemental feeds before attainment of six months of age. Therefore, there is need to understand the factors influencing breastfeeding practices during infancy and early childhood in a rural setup like the Gatanga sub-county of Kenya. Objectives: This study aimed at identifying the factors influencing breastfeeding during infancy and early childhood in a rural setup; determine the types of foods used for supplementary feeding and identification of methods. Methods: This descriptive mixed methods questionnaire based cross-sectional survey in Gatanga sub-county of Murang’a County involved purposefully selected 176 mothers of children below 5 years of age from among nursing mothers in the four villages. Results: The majority (40.3%) of the respondents were aged between 25-34 years of age followed by 38.6% of the respondents that were aged between 15-24 years. A good number (80.7%) of breastfeeding mothers in the region have gone through formal education with just an alarming (19.3%) having not had gone through any formal education. Forty eight percent (48.9%) of the breast-feeding mothers were unemployed. Nearly all nursing mothers (97%) received information on breastfeeding and its benefits while only 3% (5) revealed having not had any information concerning infant feeding. In addition, 87.5% (n=8) of the mothers with formal employments pointed out that their work place environment did not provided facilities such as workplace nursery. Exclusive breastfeeding was noted among 41.9% (n=43) of the mothers who had children of 0-6 months of age. While 30.2% of the mothers supplement breast milk with other types of milk, especially cow milk, about 11.6% indicated to supplement breast milk with other liquid foods such as glucose solution, sugar solution or fruit juice be it fresh or commercial. Maternal and contextual factors influence breastfeeding practice as well as the age of the baby. Conclusion: Breastfeeding practice among the nursing mothers in Gatanga sub-county is good however, it falls far below the recommended the World Health Organization’s recommendations.