Factors associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice of exclusively breastfeeding Palestinian women: A cross-sectional study

This study identified the factors associated with adequate knowledge, attitude, and prac-tice of exclusively breastfeeding women who visit maternity healthcare clinics in Palestine. This study was conducted in a cross-sectional design. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. The women were recruited from different maternity care and primary healthcare clinics. In this study, 51 (51.0%) of the exclusively breastfeeding women reported that they did not receive counseling on breastfeeding from healthcare providers on the last visit to the maternity clinic before delivery, and 43 (43.0%) of the women reported that they did not receive counseling on breastfeeding from healthcare providers after delivery. Of the exclusively breastfeeding women, 36 (36.0%) reported facing challenges while breastfeeding the last child. Exclusively breastfeeding women who had a male last-child, pregnancy of ≥ 37 weeks, received counseling on breastfeeding from healthcare providers in the last visit to the clinic before delivery, experienced sore/cracked nipples, and planned for another pregnancy were 5.55-fold (95% CI: 1.10-28.14), 6.51-fold (95% CI: 1.09-38.94), 7.08-fold (95% CI: 1.42-35.26), 7.26-fold (95% CI: 1.46-36.12), and 9.36-fold (95% CI: 1.93-45.55) more like-ly to score ≥ 60% in the knowledge and attitudes test. Women who believed breastfeeding changed their body shape were 3.87-fold (95% CI: 1.12-13.44) more likely to score ≥ 80% on the practice items. Most Palestinian women who practiced exclusive breastfeeding had good knowledge and positive attitudes toward breastfeeding. However, women reported less than optimal counseling by healthcare providers during their visits to the maternity healthcare clinics before and after delivery. Healthcare providers should counsel women about the ben-efits and good practices of breastfeeding, notably those whose last child is a female, had a short pregnancy period, and did not plan for another pregnancy. Larger studies are still need-ed to investigate the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among Palestinian women. Addi-tionally, more studies are still needed to investigate the effect of support from husbands and families on practicing exclusive breastfeeding among Palestinian women.