Determinants of Human Milk Donation and Use among Postpartum Women at a City Hospital Nairobi, Kenya
Background: World Health Organization advocates donor human
milk as a superior substitute for newborns unable to obtain mother’s
milk. Calls have been made for the scale-up of human
milk banks to provide infants without access to mother’s milk safe donor
human milk.
Research aim: To assess determinants of human milk donation and
use among postpartum women at a city hospital with human milk banking
facilities.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Consecutive sampling
method was used to recruit three hundred and seventy mothers. Data was collected using a
pre-tested interview-based questionnaire. Data was analyzed using
R-4.3.0 software and descriptive statistics were done for all variables.
Further inferential statistics including Chi-Square test and
multivariate logistics regression were computed with significance level
set at α=0.05.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 27 years (±6.3).
A majority (78.6%) of the women were married and slightly above half
(57%) had attained secondary school education. Only 27.3% were aware of
human milk banking. Mother’s willingness to donate human milk and use
donor human milk was 78.1% and 70.8% respectively. The respondent’s
age (OR 0.423; 95% CI 0.19-0.942) was significantly associated with
willingness to donate. Religion (OR 0.266; 95% CI 0.097-0.718) and
prior knowledge of human milk
banking (OR 0.894; 95% CI 1.066-3.364) were significant predictors of
willingness to use donor human milk.
Conclusion: Human milk banking awareness was low among the
study population; however, mothers are willing to donate human milk as
well as feed their infants’ donor human milk.