Awareness and Perception on Exclusive Breastfeeding as a Birth Control Method among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in Rural Communities

This study was carried out to examine the awareness and perception of exclusive breastfeeding as a birth control method among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in rural communities. One hundred and sixty-six pregnant women attending antenatal care in six public health facilities in Surulere local government area of Oyo State were used in this study. A questionnaire with five sections was administered and collected from them. However, only 154 were valid due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaires. These 154 questionnaires were validated and analysed using SPSS. The study revealed that 27.92% of the respondents were between the age categories of 25-30 years. Majority of  the respondents (83.12%) are married. Most of the respondents (92.86%) did not go beyond secondary school. This shows that a vast majority of the respondents are not well educated. It can be seen that 47.20% and 29.87%, of the respondents are traders and farmers respectively. Also, 85.71% have heard of exclusive breastfeeding. While 72.08% of them believed that breast milk alone is enough for an infant during their first 6 months of life. Furthermore, 57.79% of the respondents are aware that exclusive breastfeeding is a birth control method, but 67.53% did not agree that exclusive breastfeeding is a birth control method. Similarly, 53.25% of the respondents said that exclusive breastfeeding is not an accurate birth control method, and 63.64% said women in the rural areas use other types of birth control with condom as the most used birth control method. The awareness on exclusive breastfeeding as a method of birth control is high among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in rural communities but its practice is low. This may be due to the misconceptions that individuals still have about various forms of contraception, and education on these methods may be what is needed to dispel myths and explain the truths or facts underlying these various forms of contraception.