| dc.description.abstract | Exclusive breastfeeding policies and programs have been established by the government but the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding has a low percentage and is far from the national target of 80 percent. This is caused by various factors including education level, employment status, support from health workers, husband's support, mother's knowledge and breastfeeding techniques. The purpose of this research is to design a strategy to increase Exclusive Breastfeeding in Medan City with a mixed method research approach with a convergent design. The research was conducted in seven districts in Medan City. The number of samples in the quantitative study were 266 mothers who had babies aged 6-11 months and in the qualitative study were 35 mothers. The results of the study reported the mother's age, education, income, access to information, husband's support, support from health workers, breastfeeding experience, physical and emotional conditions had a significant effect on exclusive breastfeeding. The results of the qualitative research found themes namely mother's knowledge about breastfeeding, mother getting verbal persuasion, implementation of Early Breastfeeding Initiation, mother's efforts to overcome barriers to breastfeeding, mother's motivation, giving formula milk at the place of delivery, implementing rooming-in at the place of delivery. The plan for developing a strategy to increase exclusive breastfeeding in this study is to increase the commitment of health workers in information services, exclusive breastfeeding education, carry out early initiation of breastfeeding in the delivery room for at least one hour, hospitalization 24 hours a day and not giving formula milk to babies at every delivery. unless there is a medical indication and maximize exclusive breastfeeding program service interventions on an ongoing basis. It is suggested to the Medan City Health Office to prioritize the exclusive breastfeeding program. | en_US |
