EC Paediatrics

Background: The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six month of life. However, working mothers have lower rates of exclusive breast feeding after returning to work. In such cases, expressing breast milk is identified to be an essential practice that can allow these mothers to continue feeding their babies during their separation.

Objective: The study aimed to determine practice of expressing breast milk and associated factors among employed mothers having children under the age of 2 in Gulelle sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Methods: A quantitative cross sectional study design was adopted to involve a sample of 418 employed mothers with children under age of 2, attending well baby clinics at selected health centers in Gulelle sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The data was collected using a structured and pretested questionnaire and was coded, entered and stored using Epi info version 7.2.6.0. It was exported to Stata version 14.0 for cleaning and analysis. Binary logistic regression was employed to identify associated factors.

Result: Among the 418 participants in this study, 212 (51.5%, 95% CI = 46.7% - 53.4%) were expressing milk regularly or occasionally. Satisfactory knowledge on breast milk expression and storage was attained in 278 (66.5%) of the mothers and 219 (52.9%) of the mothers had favorable attitude. Tertiary level education (AOR = 2.38, 95%CI: 1.31 - 4.37), previous experience in expressing breast milk (AOR = 3.49, 95%CI: 2.02 - 6.02) and having satisfactory knowledge about expressing breast milk (AOR = 1.75, 95%CI: 1.09 - 2.80) were the identified significant factors

Conclusion: Expressing breast milk is not an uncommon practice among working mothers and it is associated with attaining higher educational level, satisfactory knowledge and previous experience with expressing. This underscores the importance of educating women, and increasing awareness concerning breast milk expression through various perinatal approaches.

Keywords: Breast Milk Expression Practices; Employed Mothers; Addis Ababa; Ethiopia

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