Evaluation of Palestinian Refugee Women’s Attitudes Towards and Persistence in Exclusive Breastfeeding for Six Months

Authors

Heather Thomas, Brigham Young University
Dr. Madanat Hala, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Palestine, refugees, Iraq, Lebanon, exclusive breastfeeding, Iraqi refugee women

College

Life Sciences

Department

Health Science

Abstract

In the wake of the Iraq war, the Israel/ Lebanon conflict and the ongoing violence in Palestine, Jordan has become a country overburdened with refugees. The UNHCR estimates that over 3 million refugees are living in Jordan, with the majority being from Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon (UNRWA, 2005). Many of these refugees don’t have access to health services. Consequently, infant mortality rates are much higher among refugees than the surrounding population, and UNICEF indicates that these numbers could be reduced if more children were exclusively breastfed (UNICEF, 2003).The purpose of my research was to discover what the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was among Iraqi refugee women in Jordan and to identify what barriers, if any, there were to exclusive breastfeeding.

Recommended Citation

Thomas, Heather and Hala, Dr. Madanat (2013) "Evaluation of Palestinian Refugee Women’s Attitudes Towards and Persistence in Exclusive Breastfeeding for Six Months," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 1170.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/1170