Exclusive Breastfeeding Discontinuation and Associated Factors among Employed Mothers in Dukem Town, East Ethiopia, 2015

Abstract

Background: Employed women tend to exclusively breast-feed less than non-employed women. Returning to work is one of the main reasons why employed women discontinue breastfeeding. Enabling women to continue breastfeeding at work has benefits for the infant, employee and organization. However, little is known about employed mothers’ views, intention, experiences and barriers of breastfeeding from employment perspective and organizational support. Objective: To assess exclusive breastfeeding discontinuation and associated factors among employed mothers in Dukem, Ethiopia. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted from February 28 to March 28, 2015. A total of 313 permanently employed women was randomly selected and interviewed. Information regarding participants' work-related factors, health service and socio-demographic factors was collected by face to face interview using structured questionnaire. Data was checked for its completeness, entered into EpiData3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Data analysis was done using logistic regression. Strength of association was measured using odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Prevalence of exclusively breastfeed discontinuation was 76%. Type of organization (AOR=2.1,95%CI(1,4.3)), period of return to work from maternity leave (AOR=9.3, 95%CI(3.8, 23)), Duration of work per day (AOR=3.5 ,95%CI(1.7, 11)), flexible work time(AOR=3,95%CI(1.2,7.5)),Pumping breast milk(AOR=4.3,95%CI(1.7,11)), Lactation break (AOR=6.7, 95%CI(3, 14.5)) and far from child (AOR=3.1, 95%CI(3.1, 6.3)) were significantly associated with outcome variable in the final regression model. Conclusion and Recommendation: Prevalence of exclusively breastfeeding discontinuation was much higher than the international and national expectation. The Administration of organization should work on supporting exclusive breastfeeding giving special emphasis to employed mothers who have child less than six months. The government should also consider revising the legislation of the two month postpartum maternity leave to reduce employed mother's exclusive breastfeeding discontinuation within six months.