Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice and Its Association among Mothers of under 5 Children in Kwango District, DR Congo

The benefit of the breastfeeding has been well-established. In comparison to partial breast feeding, exclusive breastfeeding has even more benefits. The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with breastfeeding exclusivity during the first 6 months of life in order to better target public health interventions in this community towards healthier infant nutrition and address child mortality in this population. A cross-sectional survey among 1145 random households was conducted in the Kwango district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during 2 November 2015 to 13 November 2015. Women of reproductive age from 15-49 years and having less than 5 years old child were selected for the study. Chi-squared test and bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using SPSS. A major finding of this study is 49.2% of the mothers are exclusively breastfeeding their children, and marital status, literacy, place of delivery, knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding and access to radio are the key indicators for exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding rate is almost equivalent to the national prevalence rate for the DRC. Providing adequate knowledge to raise awareness of exclusive breast feeding and increase involvement of health care providers in enhancing knowledge through antenatal care and during delivery and postnatal care will be the best approaches to increase exclusive breastfeeding practice.