Evaluating the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals towards the baby-friendly hospital initiative: a cross-sectional study in Jordanian maternity hospital

Background Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals regarding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) practices are one of the most promising means of increasing the prevalence of initiation, duration and exclusive breastfeeding. Hence, we aimed to assess healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitude, and practices toward Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiatives practices within accredited and non-accredited Baby- Friendly Hospitals. Methods A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed in 7 Jordanian hospitals (3 accredited BFHI and 4 are non-accredited BFHI) consisted of 280 healthcare professionals who were working in maternity wards and providing healthcare for mothers and their newborns. The data was collected through a four-part self-reported questionnaire that consisted of: sixteen questions on socio-demographic data, twelve questions related to knowledge, eighteen questions about healthcare professionals’ attitude and thirteen questions related to the practices toward BFHI. Results Most of the study population (accredited and non-accredited BFHI) had a good level of knowledge (96.1% and 87% respectively) and more than half had an adequate attitudes level (65% and 61% respectively). There was a statistically significant moderate positive relationship between knowledge and attitudes levels ( r = 0.593, p -value <0.001. There was a significant correlation between knowledge ( P -value = 0.01) and attitude ( P -value = 0.007) levels and BFHI training. Furthermore, practice levels were significantly associated with gender, marital status, having children, breastfeeding/infant feeding policy available for mothers and hospital staff, and BFHI training ( p -value <0.05). Conclusions Healthcare professionals (HCPs) in accredited BFHI have better knowledge, attitudes, and practices than HCPs in non-accredited BFHI. Training of all HCPs in BFHI skills is necessary to implement the ten steps policy for the purpose of improving and promoting mother's and infant's health.