Factor analysis of exclusive breastfeeding to mothers who work as health personnel in Kupang, Indonesia

Introduction: Breast milk (breast milk) is rich in nutrients and nutrients that babies need from birth. Exclusive breast milk is breast milk given to babies for the first six months without additional fluids or other solid foods. Many factors influence the success of exclusive breastfeeding, including working mothers. Mothers who work as health workers have good scientific knowledge of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, but in practice, many people still experience failure.

Objective: This study aims to analyze the factors of exclusive breastfeeding for mothers who work as health workers in Kupang.

Method: The type of research used in this research is analytical observational, using a cross-sectional approach. The population in this study were all mothers with babies aged 6 – 36 months who worked in Health Facilities in the Kupang Regency area. The samples were taken using total sampling with a total of 61 mothers. Inclusion criteria are that the mother is in good health and willing to be a respondent. The independent variables in this research are attitude, family support, and distance from home to work. Data collection used a questionnaire with G-Form, with data analysis using chi-square and Mann-Whitney.

Result: The study's results showed a significant relationship between the maternal attitude variable and family support for exclusive breastfeeding for mothers who work as health workers (p-value ≤ 0.05).In contrast, the distance variable was unrelated (p-value ≥ 0.05).

Conclusion: Mothers who work as health workers need support from their families to strengthen their determination and provide exclusive breastfeeding, especially after the mother returns to work. Future researchers are expected to be able to examine other factors that influence exclusive breastfeeding behavior, such as culture, regulations, policies, and others.