Abstract:
Background: The Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative (MBFI) promotes and supports
breastfeeding in environments such as clinics, community health centres and
hospitals that have fully-functioning maternity units. The implementation of the
Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative in hospitals is associated with significant increases
in the initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). The Mother-Baby
Friendly Initiative also leads to improved healthcare for infants, children and
provides improved maternal health to all mothers. The main aim of this study was
to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of nurses regarding the
Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative in non-accredited primary healthcare (PHC)
facilities of Makhuduthamaga Sub-district.
Method: Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study designs were used
with the quantitative method. All the 18 non-accredited primary healthcare
facilities were purposively selected and a total sampling method was used to
select all the nurses working in these non-accredited primary healthcare facilities.
Permission to conduct the study was sought from the University of Venda
Research Ethics Committee and the Limpopo Department of Health Research
Committee. Data was collected using a structured self-administered
questionnaire. Content and face validity were enhanced before the actual data
collection process. One hundred and ninety questionnaires were distributed and
164 responded, giving a response rate of 86.3%. Cronbach’s alpha test
determined the reliability and reflected 0.981, indicating high reliability. Data was
analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 and the
Pearson coefficient of correlation established the relationship between variables.
The study followed ethical considerations such as privacy, autonomy,
confidentiality, fair treatment and right to self-determination.
Results: In this study, 50.6% were professional nurses (PNs), 6.7% were nursing
managers (NMs), 15.2% were enrolled nurses (ENs) and 27.4% were enrolled
nursing assistants (ENAs). This study found that 100% of NMs, 65.1% of PNs,
54.2% of ENs and 26.7% of ENAs had received formal training on lactation
management. Seventy-two percent (72%) of NMs, 90.4% of PNs, 72% of ENs
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and 66.7% of ENAs were knowledgeable about the duration of exclusive
breastfeeding. This analysis found that the majority of nurses agreed that MBFI
increases breastfeeding rates. Results showed that 63.6% of NMs, 69.6% of PNs,
56% of ENs and 46.7% of ENAs teach and demonstrate hand-milk expression to
breastfeeding mothers. Furthermore, this research revealed that there was a
significant relationship between the knowledge, attitudes and practices of nurses
with a p-value of (p-00.01).
Recommendations and Conclusion: This study recommends that all nurses
should receive formal training on MBFI implementation and this should be
conducted to improve ENs and ENAs’ awareness about MBFI. MBFI should be
integrated into the training curriculum for all nursing categories. This study further
recommends that a support model for implementation of MBFI be developed and
implemented.
