Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health Organization. Mothers’ good knowledge and positive attitude play key roles in the process of exclusive breastfeeding practices. In this study, we report on a systematic review of the literature that aimed to examine the status of mothers’ knowledge, attitude, and practices related to exclusive breastfeeding in East Africa, so as to provide clues on what can be done to improve exclusive breastfeeding. A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature was performed. The search for literature was conducted utilizing six electronic databases, Pub med, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Embase, Science Direct, and Cochrane library, for studies published in English from January 2000 to June 2019 and conducted in East Africa. Studies focused on mothers’ knowledge, attitudes, or practices related to exclusive breastfeeding. All papers were reviewed using a predesigned data extraction form. Sixteen studies were included in the review. This review indicates that almost 96.2% of mothers had ever heard about EBF, 84.4% were aware of EBF, and 49.2% knew that the duration of EBF was the first six months only. In addition, 42.1% of mothers disagreed and 24.0% strongly disagreed that giving breast milk for a newborn immediately and within an hour is important, and 47.9% disagreed that discarding the colostrum is important. However, 42.0% of mothers preferred to feed their babies for the first six months breast milk alone. In contrast, 55.9% of them had practiced exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months. Exclusively breastfeeding among our sample is suboptimal, compared to the current WHO recommendations. Thus, it is important to provide antenatal and early postpartum education and periodical breastfeeding counseling, to improve maternal attitudes and knowledge toward breastfeeding practices.

中文翻译：

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东非母亲纯母乳喂养的知识、态度和实践：系统评价。

世界卫生组织建议在前六个月大的婴儿进行纯母乳喂养 (EBF)。母亲的良好知识和积极态度在纯母乳喂养实践过程中起着关键作用。在这项研究中，我们对文献进行了系统回顾，旨在检查东非母亲在纯母乳喂养方面的知识、态度和做法的现状，以提供有关可以采取哪些措施来改善纯母乳喂养的线索。 . 对同行评审的文献进行了系统回顾。利用六个电子数据库（Pub med、Web of Science、Google Scholar、Embase、Science Direct 和 Cochrane 图书馆）进行文献检索，检索 2000 年 1 月至 2019 年 6 月在东非以英语发表的研究。专注于母亲知识的研究，与纯母乳喂养相关的态度或做法。所有论文都使用预先设计的数据提取表格进行审查。该评价纳入了 16 项研究。这篇综述表明，几乎 96.2% 的母亲听说过 EBF，84.4% 知道 EBF，49.2% 知道 EBF 的持续时间仅是前六个月。此外，42.1% 的母亲不同意，24.0% 的母亲强烈反对立即和一小时内给新生儿喂母乳很重要，47.9% 的母亲不同意丢弃初乳很重要。然而，42.0% 的母亲更愿意在前六个月给婴儿单独喂母乳。相比之下，55.9% 的人进行纯母乳喂养至少六个月。与当前的世卫组织建议相比，我们样本中的纯母乳喂养并不理想。