Infant Feeding Practices among HIV-Positive Women in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: Preventing transmission of HIV from mother to child after birth is one of the greatest challenges in HIV prevention.
Aim: To evaluate the infant feeding practices among HIV-positive mothers and the factors that influenced their decisions at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.
Methods: This was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study carried out at the paediatric HIV follow-up clinic between 1st January and 31st March 2014. Analysis was carried out using SSPS version 10.0 (Chicago IL, USA). P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Results: Fifty four HIV-Positive mothers were evaluated. The mean (standard deviation) for age of the respondents was 29.7 (4.2) years. Thirty two respondents (59.3%) practiced replacement feeding, 14(29.9%) practiced mixed feeding while 8(14.8%) practiced exclusive breast feeding. Of the mothers that practiced mixed feeding, 10(71.4%) did not receive counseling on infant feeding practices. Replacement feeding was adopted by 27 (84.4%) of respondents for fear of transmission of HIV to their children. Disclosure of status and counseling were independently significantly associated with the adoption of recommended infant feeding methods (EBF and RF) P<0.05.
Conclusion: Exposure to counseling on infant feeding methods was low. Current guidelines on infant feeding methods should be disseminated through structured counseling sessions at Maternity care centres for HIV-positive mothers.