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PMTCT of HIV infant-feeding practices Mpumalanga province South Africa
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The infant-feeding practices of mothers enrolled in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme at a primary health care clinic in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose: To determine whether mothers attending a primary health care (PHC) clinic in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa for post-delivery
prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) follow-up care were adhering to the recommendation
of exclusive infant-feeding practices, and to identify possible areas for improvement of the PMTCT of HIV services at the clinic.
Setting: A municipal PHC clinic in White River, a semi-urban town in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study using a structured infant-feeding questionnaire.
Subjects: All mothers attending the clinic for post-delivery PMTCT of HIV follow-up care during a four-month period from 1 November 2007 to
29 February 2008.
Results: A total of 33 mothers with infants attended the clinic during the period. All 33 mothers took part in the questionnaire study. Thirty
questionnaires were subsequently found suitable for analysis. The mothers were predominantly rural, with low levels of education and no formal
employment. Their ages ranged from 22 to 42 years, with a mean of 30.7 years. Fifteen (50%) of the 30 mothers practised exclusive replacement
feeding (ERF), 8 (27%) practised exclusive breast-feeding (EBF), and 7 (23%) practised mixed feeding.
Conclusion: More than three-quarters of the mothers practised the recommended exclusive infant-feeding methods for PMTCT of HIV, with ERF as
the most popular choice. However, the infant-feeding practices could not be generalised as the attendance of mothers for post-delivery follow-up
care at the clinic was very poor during the study period. This poor attendance was attributed to frequent non-availability of free formula milk for the
programme. Better quality counselling is needed to further increase the adherence to exclusive infant-feeding practices, and to improve the uptake
of post-delivery follow-up care.
prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) follow-up care were adhering to the recommendation
of exclusive infant-feeding practices, and to identify possible areas for improvement of the PMTCT of HIV services at the clinic.
Setting: A municipal PHC clinic in White River, a semi-urban town in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study using a structured infant-feeding questionnaire.
Subjects: All mothers attending the clinic for post-delivery PMTCT of HIV follow-up care during a four-month period from 1 November 2007 to
29 February 2008.
Results: A total of 33 mothers with infants attended the clinic during the period. All 33 mothers took part in the questionnaire study. Thirty
questionnaires were subsequently found suitable for analysis. The mothers were predominantly rural, with low levels of education and no formal
employment. Their ages ranged from 22 to 42 years, with a mean of 30.7 years. Fifteen (50%) of the 30 mothers practised exclusive replacement
feeding (ERF), 8 (27%) practised exclusive breast-feeding (EBF), and 7 (23%) practised mixed feeding.
Conclusion: More than three-quarters of the mothers practised the recommended exclusive infant-feeding methods for PMTCT of HIV, with ERF as
the most popular choice. However, the infant-feeding practices could not be generalised as the attendance of mothers for post-delivery follow-up
care at the clinic was very poor during the study period. This poor attendance was attributed to frequent non-availability of free formula milk for the
programme. Better quality counselling is needed to further increase the adherence to exclusive infant-feeding practices, and to improve the uptake
of post-delivery follow-up care.
