Maternal Health Literacy Towards the Readiness of Exlusive Breastfeeding

Abstract

Maternal health literacy can be defined as a cognitive and social abilities that can affect to the health of the mother. The low assembling of exclusive breastfeeding is caused by the lack of preparation in exclusive breastfeeding. The purpose of this study is to know the effect of maternal health literacy toward the readiness of mothers breastfeeding exclusively.This study was conducted on 150 pregnant women with their very first pregnancy by using cross sectional design with cluster random sampling. Enclosed questionnaires were used to measure the respondents literacy about health and the readiness of mothers in exclusive breastfeeding. Data were analyzed by using multiple linear regression model. Statistical testing is performed with a 5% significance level. All of the four indicators of maternal health literacy (knowledge about reproduction health, ability to access health information and analize health problems, and ability to seek health supports) revealed that health literacy is a positive factor for the mothers‘ readiness in exclusive breastfeeding. From all of these indicators, knowledge about reproductive health is the most contributed factor. Based on these results we conclude that health literacy is a positive factor for the readiness of mothers breastfeeding exclusively, the higher the mother's health literacy score the higher the readiness of mothers in exclusive breastfeeding.