PhDPH / Department of Public Health / The benefits of breastfeeding, particularly exclusive breastfeeding, are well recognized. It can
reduce the risk of mortality related to malnutrition, otitis media and respiratory infection.
Breastfeeding may also decrease the risk of obesity in later life for infants who have
been breastfed for more than six months. Besides, breastfeeding improves cognition,
and children who have been breastfed show higher intelligence quotient test scores
and improved school performance. In addition, long-period breastfeeding is
associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer for mothers. The
World Health Organization and United Nations International Children’s Emergency
Fund recommended exclusive breastfeeding for six months and breastfeeding to two
years and beyond. However, this study showed that only 27% of children under six
months have had been exclusively breastfed. In this situation, an intervention
programme was required.
The aim of this study was to develop an intervention programme to promote exclusive
breastfeeding strategies in Limpopo Province. Intervention mapping was used to
guide the development of a programme. A convergent, parallel mixed-method was
used wherein qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed
concurrently. A qualitative approach was used to assess the implementation of
exclusive breastfeeding and to explore challenges experienced by health care workers
in the implementation of exclusive breastfeeding in Limpopo Province. This was carried
out by means of in-depth interviews with 30 professional nurses. Trustworthiness was
ensured through credibility, confirmability, dependability and transferability. A
quantitative approach was used to determine the factors that influence exclusive
breastfeeding. Reliability and validity of the instrument was ensured through extensive
literature review and test-retest methodology. Questionnaires were distributed to 400
respondents. Tesch’s eight steps of data analysis was used to analyse qualitative
data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 26, was used to analyse
the quantitative data. The results were merged, and the interpretation discussed. Five
higher-order themes emerged from quantitative data analysis. The themes emerged
from qualitative data were confirmed by the findings from statistical data, thus merging
both qualitative and quantitative data. Findings were presented to the stakeholders,
managers and dieticians and their inputs further confirmed and supported the findings.
The findings informed the development of an intervention programme. The
intervention comprises of the three components, training of community health workers,
healths talks focusing on lactating mothers and health talks focusing on families and
community. The developed intervention was validated by the stakeholders and the
results were analysed through simple descriptive statistics where the data were
summarized using frequency distributions and graphic representations. The results
revealed that the programme was feasible, compatible and applicable to current
practice. Recommendations were made and topics for further research were also
suggested. / NRF
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:univen/oai:univendspace.univen.ac.za:11602/1618 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Mudau, Azwinndini Gladys |
| Contributors | Mabunda, J. T., Mushaphi, L. F. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (iii, 342 leaves), application/pdf |
| Rights | University of Venda |
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