Knowledge and attitudes towards breast milk donation and associated factors among pregnant mothers attending antenatal care at health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract Background - The majority of mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their babies, however, the problem with breastfeeding arises when the mother is unable to breastfeed due to numerous physical and emotional barriers to breastfeeding. In this case, providing the infant pastoralized donor human milk is vital. Little is known about pregnant mothers’ attitudes and knowledge about breast milk donation in primary health care facilities in Addis Ababa. Objective -To assess the knowledge and attitude towards breast milk donation and associated factors among pregnant mothers attending ANC at public health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021. Methods -Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant mothers attending ANC in selected health centers in Addis Ababa. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Pregnant mothers were interviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data were entered using Epi data version 4.6.0.2 and exported to SPSS version 25 for cleansing and analysis. Bivariate logistic regression method was used and the statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05 with a 95% confidence level. Result - Knowledge of breast milk donation among pregnant mothers attending antenatal care is 25.5%. Nearly half of the mothers have a positive attitude towards breast milk donation. Those who get a monthly income of 3000 and above are 3.2 times more knowledgeable than those who get less than or equal to 1500 birr [AOR (95% CI) 3.23(1.65, 6.34)]. Those mothers who received counseling about breastfeeding are 3.699 times more knowledgeable than those who didn’t receive [AOR (95% CI) 3.699(2.291, 5.973)]. Women who attend secondary education are 3.5 times more likely to have a positive attitude towards breast milk donation than those who never attend school [AOR (95%CI) 3.563(1.864, 6.811)]. Pregnant women who visited NICU were 3.55 times more likely to have a positive attitude towards breast milk donation than those who didn’t visit NICU [AOR (95%CI) 3.557(2.171, 5.829)]. Conclusion -Our finding in this study about knowledge towards BMD is 25.5%, whereas nearly half of the study participants have a positive attitude towards breast milk donation. Partner occupation, counseling about breastfeeding, and history of delivering low birth weight or preterm infants was found to have a statistically significant association with knowledge about breast milk donation. Educational status, NICU visit, and history of caesarian section delivery were found to have a statistically significant association with attitudes towards breast milk donation.