Analysis of Factors Affecting Exclusive Breast Milk in The Work Area of Waru Puskesmas East Seram Regency

Abstract

At present exclusive breastfeeding is decreasing, the causes of the decline in exclusive breastfeeding are factors of lack of knowledge, social culture, awareness of the importance of breastfeeding, health services, health workers who have not fully supported, and the incessant promotion of exclusive breastfeeding. The low percentage of breastfeeding is probably due to the many factors that cause breastfeeding failure, both internal factors (mother's knowledge, mother's education, mother's occupation, and mother's disease) and external factors (promotional infant formula, birth attendants) which cause failure in breastfeeding for 6 months. This study aims to determine the factors that influence exclusive breastfeeding to infants in the work area of the Waru Health Center, East Seram District. This type of research is quantitative research with an analytic observational design with a cross-sectional study to see the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable and observations at the same time. The sampling technique in this study was simple random sampling with a total sample of 81 mothers. The results of this study indicate that there is an influence between employment status and the support of health workers with exclusive breastfeeding, while for the variables of maternal pregnancy distance and knowledge, there is no effect with exclusive breastfeeding. Suggestions for health workers are to improve communication, information, and education. The advice for breastfeeding mothers is to further increase knowledge related to lactation and family support is needed. Key words: Exclusive breastfeeding, Infants, Puskesmas