Infant feeding practices, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of mothers with 0-6 months babies attending baby-friendly accredited health facilities and non-baby friendly accredited health facilities in Blantyre, Malawi
Abstract
The Ministry of Health in Malawi promotes exclusive breastfeeding for the first six
months of life and continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary feeding up to
two years or beyond. This policy applies to all children unless there are medical
indications. Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI is a strategy that contributes to the
attainment of this policy. BFHI is a strategy to increase early and e elusive breastfeeding
rates among mothers. This study is a pilot to evaluate the success o e BFHI initiative
in Malawi.
Study design : A cross-sectional cohort study of women and their infants, 0-5 months,
attending BFHI and non-BFHI accredited health facilities in Blantyre district of Malawi
between the period from 28th April to 30th September 2008 was conducted