Abstract:

Introduction: Breast milk and hand hygiene are very important aspect for breastfeeding mothers. This is because of the role breast milk plays in the early stage of development of the infant. Though breast milk is very essential for infants, its quality can be compromised when proper hygiene practices are not observed by the breastfeeding mothers. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the knowledge and practices of breast milk and hand hygiene among breastfeeding mothers in tertiary health institutions in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Method: The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design with a purposive sampling method to select 215 breastfeeding mothers who visited two tertiary health institutions for immunization. Data among were analyzed. Ethical approval and permission were from the participants, hospitals studied and the institution of University of Port Harcourt the author affiliates. Result: The result revealed that 71.3% and 75.3% had good knowledge of breast milk and hand hygiene while 2.3% and 1.4% had poor knowledge. The study noted that 58.1% and 60.9% of the mothers practices breast milk and hand hygiene respectively and 21.4% and 9.8%.The knowledge of breast milk and hand hygiene was significantly associated with practices of breast milk and hand hygiene. The result further revealed that only knowledge of breast milk hygiene was significantly associated with parity while knowledge of hand hygiene, practices of breast milk and hand hygiene was not significantly associated with parity. Conclusion: Though there is high knowledge of breast milk and hand hygiene among the breastfeeding mothers but the knowledge did not reflect with the practice. There is therefore a need for continuous education of the breastfeeding mothers on the practice of milk and hand hygiene and its importance to the growing infants.