Effect of Breastfeeding Education on Knowledge and Intention-To-Practice Exclusive Breastfeeding among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Mothers have been encouraged to practice exclusive breastfeed for the first six months of child’s life. Breastfeeding education improves knowledge and intention to practice exclusive breastfeeding among pregnant women. The study assessed the effect of breastfeeding education on the knowledge and intention to practice exclusive breastfeeding among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The study was conducted among 200 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the two Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ile-Ife. It was a quasi-experimental study conducted in three phases: pre-intervention/baseline, intervention and post-intervention phases. Baseline data were collected from both intervention and control groups using pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire. The intervention group received breastfeeding education while the control group did not. After 12 weeks from the start of the intervention, post-intervention data were collected from both the intervention and control groups using the same questionnaire at baseline. Data collected were analyzed with the use of IBM Statistical Package for Service Solutions (SPSS) version 25 software. Descriptive analysis was done for all variables. The outcome variables were compared at pre and post-intervention using chi-square and McNemar’s chi-square (binomial distribution) as test of association. The level of significance was set at p value less than 0.05. In the intervention group, knowledge of EBF increased from 29.8% to 95.2% at post-intervention respectively, and this was statistically significant at p 0.05. There was no increase in the intention to practice EBF. The study concluded that breastfeeding education significantly improved knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding but not the intention to practice exclusive breastfeeding.