Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health
Organization. Mothers’ good knowledge and positive attitude play key roles in the process
of exclusive breastfeeding practices. This study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude
and practices towards exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with infants attending the
immunization clinic at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. The study was conducted using a
descriptive cross-sectional design. Questionnaires were used to collect data and a
quantitative research approach was employed. The study revealed that most of the
respondents 124(39.1%) were in their late twenties ranging from 25-29 years, nearly half of
them (43.5%) were married, and most of them 32.2% were housewives with infants in the age
bracket of 4-6 months (28.4%) On the assessment of the knowledge, the majority of 82% of
mothers knew some information on EBF, only 28.5% knew the correct meaning of EBF, 74.1%
had ever had EBF counselling and most of them (47.6%) were unaware of the recommended
duration of EBF. With regards to attitude majority, 56.8% of the mothers wanted to exclusively
breastfeed their babies until six months and 32% of them strongly agreed that it was
important to give the baby some water, honey and other solid foods during the first six
months after birth. Majority of the respondents 72% initiated breastfeeding within the first
hour of birth, but only 13.2% exclusively breastfed for six months. Exclusive breastfeeding
attitude was good but knowledge and practices were poor. Only 28.5% of the respondents
were able to correctly define EBF and 13.2% exclusively breastfed until six months.
Exclusively breastfeeding in my study was suboptimal, compared to the current MoH
recommendations. Therefore, there is a need to put in place strategies that target improving
maternal knowledge, attitude and practices towards EBF.