Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Family Medicine

Introduction: Although breastfeeding has been shown to have dual benefits for both infants and their mothers, the global rate of breastfeeding has been declining, especially in Middle Eastern countries, this decline necessitates an urgent exploration of the determinants of breastfeeding practices. Objective: To measure the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending the phc during vaccination of their children. To identify the most important problems that prevent exclusive breastfeeding between mothers attending the phc Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in 250 selected mothers of children less than 2 years of age who attended the vaccination clinic at alshamhneh, Tuwal primary health care center, JAZAN region, Kindom Of Saudi Arabia, after the child being vaccinated, permission took from the mother, then took to separated room and questionnaires of the study conducted to these mothers and their answers were taken, this procedure done till 250 cases were collected . Result: Although 87.6% of the 250 Saudi mothers were successful in initiating breastfeeding on the first 8 hours of delivery, only 13.6% of infants were exclusively breastfed at age of 4-6months. Factors influencing exclusive breastfeeding for the six months of life in the study sample were mothersmilk insufficient (65.6), child find the bottle easy to use and mothers work . Conclusion: The majority of studied mothers have suboptimal breastfeeding practices

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