NDLI: Breastfeeding-friendly policies and programs in three public Universities in Ghana

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Gbagbo, Fred Yao Nkrumah, Jacqueline
Abstract	Background The United Nations through its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and 5 has championed Women empowerment for exclusive breastfeeding through various action plans and expected the concept to be decentralized through locally mandatory implementation of various institutional policies and programs in member Countries. Using Kabeer’s empowerment concept, the authors in this paper assessed availability and implementation of breastfeeding policies and programs in three public universities in Ghana. Methods The study design was an exploratory-descriptive-case study involving university employees and student mothers from three public universities in Ghana. The universities were selected via simple random approach whilst selection of participants was purposive. Data were collected between April and July 2018 using an unstructured interview guide developed by the authors, audio recordings, field notes and desktop review of documents. Manual thematic analysis of data was done to present results descriptively. The University of Cape-Coast Ethics Review Board approved the study. Results Thirty-six respondents participated in the study. Three main themes (Breastfeeding policy and programs, Institutional support, and views on Breastfeeding/Childcare support) emerged. Despite being gender/child friendly, none of the universities in this study has a formal breastfeeding/childcare policy/program and there are no immediate policy plans for on-campus facilities to enhance breastfeeding. Financial cost emerged as a major challenge hindering the universities from implementing a policy/program in this regard. On the part of student mothers, lack of legal protection, lack of breastfeeding-friendly university policies, inadequate availability of breastfeeding facilities, and insufficient awareness of the importance of breastfeeding among nursing mothers has been a major setback for breastfeeding on campus, hence nursing mothers continue to make personal but challenging arrangements for breastfeeding on university campuses. Conclusions The study findings reflect negative implications for childcare as it affects optimal child nutrition, hence impacting on achieving the SDGs 3 and 5 in Ghana. The authors recommend introducing formal breastfeeding-friendly policies/programs as one of the criteria for accreditation of universities in Ghana to enhance optimal childcare and sound maternal mind for studies and/or work once there is an assurance of child safety and proximity to breastfeed on demand.
Related Links	https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13006-022-00468-7.pdf
Ending Page	11
Page Count	11
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	17464358
DOI	10.1186/s13006-022-00468-7
Journal	International Breastfeeding Journal
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	17
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2022-04-11
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Maternal and Child Health Breastfeeding Ghana Policies Programs Sustainable-Development-Goals Universities
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Obstetrics and Gynecology Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Journal Impact Factor	2.9/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.6/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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