Health education on breast feeding in antenatal clinics in Eldoret District Hospital, Kenya.

One hundred and sixty three mothers who delivered at Eldoret District Hospital (EDH) during the months of June to October, 1992 were interviewed using a structured questionnaire with the aim of establishing knowledge attained from antenatal visits on breast feeding and lactation. The mothers were either in the postnatal ward or in the newborn unit. The interview was on various aspects of breast feeding but with the main goal of establishing whether they received health education on breast feeding during the visits to ANC. 53.06% had antenatal education on breastfeeding during these visits while 46.94% did not. 69.44% attended ANC at a hospital, 24.3% attended at health centre and 6.25% attended a dispensary. Most mothers had between 3 and 5 ANC visits with a range of one to eleven visits and with a parity of between one and three. 79% of the mothers commenced ANC attendance by 24 weeks gestation with 19% starting at 12 weeks. The hospital ANC attendants had slightly higher proportion of mothers health educated on breast feeding than the health centre and dispensary groups. Only 76 mothers had received satisfactory health education on breast feeding. One third of the mothers had breastfed their children for 2 years and similarly, one third stopped breast feeding by 12 months postnatally. 90% of the mothers started weaning their children by one month of age.