Abstract

Breast milk is an optimal nutrition with no substitute for an infant The advantage gained from exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months is paramount for the infant s health To understand mothers practice of exclusive breastfeeding identifying and examining factors affecting exclusive breastfeeding is vital The aim of the current study was therefore to identify major factors that determine the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among South Western Oromia specifically in Jimma and Wo liso towns Towards this end a cross-sectional study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative study approaches A total of 135 mother-infant pairs attending maternal and child health MCH at public hospitals in the two selected towns were interviewed Six 6 key informant interviews 6 FGDs and observations of mother-infant conditions were conducted Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS and qualitative information was thematically analyzed The breast milk initiation is 100 at the study site out of which 80 of them were exclusively breastfed up to two months of age while only 48 9 continue exclusive breastfeeding up to six months Factors identified as facilitators of exclusive breast feeding include knowledge of mothers personal satisfaction family support media and visits to health institutions Working condition of some employed woman perception of insufficient milk health condition and advises from their family member or neighborsare identified as barriers to the practice of mothers exclusive breastfeeding The significance of having knowledge on practice of exclusive breastfeeding was evidenced with the logistic regression model and results from the qualitative analysis A linear regression analysis shows that increase in mother s educational level have strong statistically significant association with level of exclusive breastfeeding The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was relatively low 48 9 hence to promote the practice of exclu