Knowledge Attitudes and Practice of Breast Milk Expression and Storage Among Working Mothers With Infants Under 6 Months of Age in Public Well Baby Clinics

Background: Many studies show that working mothers are unable to exclusively breastfeed successfully. Expression and storage of breastmilk is a strategy that ensures continued breastmilk consumption in the event of temporary separation of an infant from the mother. The 2017 Kenyan Health Act mandates employers to provide lactation rooms with guidance for appropriate utilization.Methodology: The study objective was to assess knowledge attitude and practice of breastmilk expression and storage among working women with infants below six months of age in Public Well Baby Clinics. This was a cross sectional study among 395 working women attending two large public hospitals in Nairobi Kenya. A structured questionnaire with open and closed ended questions was used to establish the knowledge and practice while a Likert scale was used to explore attitudes of the mothers towards expression and storage of breast milk. Results: Only 161(41%) were expressing breast milk. Those with tertiary education and those working in the public sector had significantly higher odds of having satisfactory knowledge OR4.47(95%CI 2.01-11.07) and OR2.26(95%CI 1.33-3.85) respectively. Attaining tertiary education was significantly associated with a possibility of expressing and storing breastmilk OR3.6(95% CI 1.81-7.95). The workplace did not provide adequate equipment to facilitate breastmilk expression. Challenges experienced were breast pain and cumbersome nature of expressing milk.Conclusion: The study revealed knowledge gaps in expression and storage of breastmilk that need to be addressed to enable the mothers fully utilize the lactation rooms when they become available at the workplace.