Breastfeeding offers significant protection against illness for the infant and numerous health benefits for the mother, including a decreased risk of breast cancer. In 1991, UNICEF and WHO launched the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative with the aim of increasing rates of breastfeeding. "Baby-Friendly" is a designation a maternity site can receive by demonstrating to external assessors complianc...

B A C K G R O U N D : Culture, beliefs and practices, mother’s employment, and increasing modernization are linked to breastfeeding. In Pakistan, some false beliefs and practices interfere with breastfeeding even among nurses. This led to the development of this study with the focus on nurses’ breastfeeding experiences since nurses constitute the major workforce in any health care setting and m...

INFANT FEEDING PRACTICES AND BELIEFS AMONG WOMEN IN PODOR, WEST AFRICA by Heather L. Schwartz This thesis determines and describes infant feeding practices and beliefs amongst women in Podor, West Africa. Structured interviews were used to gather data pertaining to demographics, breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and weaning practices and beliefs. The aim of this thesis was to assemble basel...

BACKGROUND Studies report mixed findings about rates of both exclusive and partial breastfeeding amongst women who are migrants or refugees in high income countries. It is important to understand the beliefs and experiences that impact on migrant and refugee women's infant feeding decisions in order to appropriately support women to breastfeed in a new country. The aim of this paper is to repor...

AIM To evaluate knowledge, practices, and attitudes to breastfeeding among Croatian health professionals before and after the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund/World Health Organization (UNICEF/WHO) 20-hour course. METHODS Study included 5 of 9 maternity hospitals in southern Croatia, which had completed the UNICEF/WHO 20-hour breastfeeding training course between Decembe...

BACKGROUND Exclusive breastfeeding in infants aged under six months is a simple and cost-effective feeding method that ensures better infant and child survival and boosts the achievement of child related Millennium Development Goals in the developing world. Identifying factors associated with good breastfeeding practice helps to increase its coverage and maximize its advantages through improved...

BACKGROUND Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life is recommended internationally. This study aimed to investigate exclusive breastfeeding practices and associated factors among mothers of infants aged less than 6 months. METHODS A community based cross-sectional study was conducted on mother-infant pairs in Dubti town in May, 2015. In this study, exclusive breastfeeding was de...

OBJECTIVES Although much has been published about breastfeeding rates, little is known about how breastfeeding is practiced in the United States. We describe the distributions and characteristics of practices related to common advice about breastfeeding during the infant's first year of life. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS Participants in the 2005-2007 Infant Feeding Practices Study II received mon...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the initation time of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding rates, and complementary feeding practices during the first six months of life among mothers who gave birth in a baby-friendly hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted with 350 mothers. Demographic characteristics, obstetric history and information about breastfeeding initiation ...