Breastfeeding Practices among Health Professionals in Tertiary Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya

Background: WHO aims to increase the 6 month exclusive breastfeeding rate to 50% by 2025. Breastfeeding is one of the key interventions that will help in achieving the sustainable development goals. Health professionals have been identified as a high risk group for early cessation of breast feeding. Work has been noted to be the major factor that interferes with breastfeeding. Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is a baby friendly hospital. A number of studies have been conducted on mother practices but none has been on the health care professionals. Objective: The study explored breastfeeding practices during first six months by nurses and doctors working at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Methodology: Using a self administered semi-structured questionnaire we explored the practices and perceptions regarding exclusive breastfeeding female health professionals who had a child below age of 3 years Results: Of the 160 questionnaires issued, 139 were valid for analysis. Of these 49 were residents and 90 were nurses. The median age for doctors was 31 years and that of nurses was 35 years. Initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour was 69.5% and 22% gave prelacteal feeds. The median duration of exclusive breastfeeding was 5 months. However, exclusive breastfeeding was 99.3% during the first three months was 94.9% at four months, 64.2% at 5 months, and 29.2% at 6 months. Sixty three percent thought 6 month exclusive breastfeeding was actually practical. After maternity leave, 81.3% reported a decrease in the amount of breastmilk but 66.7% made effort to ensure that their babies continued to get breastmilk. Only 46% had special consideration on duty allocation on return to work. Conclusion: Only 29.2% exclusively breastfeed for 6 months and there was little consideration on allocation of duties when back to work. Effort to avail a breastfeeding friendly work environment needs to be made to rectify this. Keywords: Breastfeeding; Children; Mothers; Kenya