• E T Owoaje, A Oyemade, and O O Kolude.
• Department of Community Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
• Afr J Med Med Sci. 2002 Jun 1; 31 (2): 137-40.

AbstractThe UNICEF/WHO Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) programme was developed to train health workers and equip them with the required knowledge and skills to protect, promote and support breastfeeding among mothers through the implementation of the "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding". This study was conducted to assess the effect of BFHI training on knowledge, attitudes and support practices of nurses with regards to exclusive breastfeeding. A total of 298 nurses in maternal and child health care units were interviewed, of these 113 (37.1%) had participated in the BFHI training workshop. Significantly higher proportions of the BFHI trained nurses had the correct knowledge regarding the causes and management of common breastfeeding problems. The overall knowledge scores of the BFHI trained nurses was significantly higher than that of the untrained (11.9 +/- 1.8 versus 10.7 +/- 2.4 P < 0.01). Higher proportions of BFHI trained nurses reported correct support practices for the initiation and establishment of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers. The findings show that nurses who had participated in the BFHI training workshop were significantly more knowledgeable about some aspects of exclusive breastfeeding, they had more positive attitudes and were more likely to employ correct practices for the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding.

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