Exploration of breastfeeding mothers’ knowledge and attitudes toward human milk donation in Nelson Mandela Bay

The beneficial effects of breastfeeding for mothers and babies are well recognized. When maternal breast milk is not available in sufficient quantity, an alternative source of nutrition is donated breast milk, particularly for ill preterm and other high-risk infants. Therefore, it was important to explore the breastfeeding mothers’ knowledge as well as their attitudes toward human milk donation and the possibilities of enhancing it. The objectives of this study were to: • To explore and describe the breastfeeding mothers’ knowledge as well as their attitudes toward human milk donation in Nelson Mandela Bay. • To make recommendations to operational/unit managers and midwives, based on the findings of the study, in order to enhance and promote human milk bank donation in Nelson Mandela Bay. The study was conducted between November 2016 and January 2017, using a quantitative approach with an explorative, descriptive, and contextual design after obtaining the necessary approval from the university and relevant authorities. The research population consisted of breastfeeding mothers who were in maternity units in either a public or a private hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from conveniently sampled participants by using set inclusion and exclusion criteria after obtaining the necessary informed consent. Data was captured by the researcher on a Microsoft Excel spread sheet and was reduced and analysed with the help of a statistician who used a software package called IBM SPSS Statistics 24 to ensure the efficacy of the results. One hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed and 104 were returned, meaning that a response rate of 87% was achieved. From the research findings it was found that breastfeeding mothers in Nelson Mandela Bay do not know about human milk banking and donation. Breastfeeding mothers acknowledged the fact that they lacked information about human milk banking and donation. Furthermore, there are safety concerns regarding donated breast milk and all the breastfeeding mothers that were part of the study, had never used milk bank services. Based on these findings, recommendations for the incorporation of v breastfeeding and human milk bank services were made. Further recommendations were made on the inclusion of human milk services in the health education that is given during antenatal and postnatal care. The researcher used a literature control to ensure the validity and integrity of the study. Further, the quality of the study was maintained by observing the principles of reliability and validity. Ethical considerations were guided by the Belmont Report by adopting the principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice