Research Article
Ademola M AMOSU, Adenike M DEG
Abstract
This cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out to assess the knowledge and support level of breast-feeding among professionals in formal employment institutions. One thousand and twenty-five randomly selected professionals recruited for the study were served with structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed with the method of descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages. Analysis of the questionnaires showed that out of the 1025 respondents, 10.1% were below 20 years of age, 55.1% between 20 - 30 years, 24.9% between 31-40 years and 9.9% above 40 years of age. The respondents were made up of 492 males and 533 females. Out of these, 46.0% were single, 51.0% were married and 3.0% divorced. Occupationally, the respondents were made up of 21.0% medical practitioners, 8.8% pharmacists, 37.8% confidential secretaries, 10.4% computer scientists, 18.5% bankers, and 3.5% lawyers. Also, 78.2% of the respondents were Christians, 20.3% were Muslims while 1.5% were of traditional and other religions. The professionals represented the various ethnic groups in Nigeria: Yoruba 74.5%, Igbo 20.0%, Hausa 3.0% and others, 2.5%. Among the workforce, 96.5% were knowledgeable about the benefits of breast-feeding but only 29.2% were willing to take an extra work in order to allow a colleague, who is a nursing mother, to go and breast-feed her baby at intervals. The results of this study show that although the workers have knowledge about the benefits of breast-feeding, only a few will take on extra duty in order to allow a nursing colleague to go and breast-feed her baby.