Objective: Describe the breastfeeding status of mothers giving birth to full-term babies for the first time at the Obstetrics Department of Thai Nguyen National Hospital from April 2021 to June 2021.
Research subjects and methods: Cross-sectional description of 104 mothers who gave birth to full-term at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Thai Nguyen Central Hospital from April to June 2021.
Results: 90.4% of mothers participating in the study were in ages 19–35. The average age was 28 ± 4.47 years. The majority of mothers are of Kinh ethnicity (61.5%), and their main occupation is working (32.7%). 74% of mothers both breastfed and fed formula milk; only 25% exclusively breastfed and 1% exclusively fed formula milk. 4.8% of mothers breastfeed when their baby seems hungry. 63.5% of mothers agreed to let their children use pacifiers. 19.2% of mothers believe that exclusive breastfeeding means that the child is fed breast milk and supplemented with water according to their needs. 78.8% of mothers said that exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is recommended.
Conclusions: The majority of mothers participating in the research are of reproductive age, Kinh ethnicity, and worker occupations. The rate of mothers exclusively breastfeeding is still low (25%), and very few mothers breastfeed when they feel their baby needs it (4.8%), and most mothers breastfeed at a fixed time and let the baby suck on a pacifier. Only 19.2% of mothers understand what exclusive breastfeeding is, but the majority of mothers have knowledge about the duration of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (78.8%).