Abstract / Summary
Background: Maternal attitudes towards childcare shape practices such as breastfeeding, immunisation, and care-seeking that are critical to child survival and development, yet the specific attitudinal profile of mothers in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, remains under-documented. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study assessed attitudes towards childcare among 403 mothers attending two health facilities in Ado-Ekiti, selected via stratified systematic random sampling. Attitudes were measured across twelve items on a five-point Likert scale covering breastfeeding, immunisation, nutrition, hygiene, traditional medicine, religious beliefs, and healthcare-seeking behaviour. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA at p < 0.05. Results: Attitudes towards core childcare practices were overwhelmingly positive: breastfeeding (99.5% combined agreement), immunisation importance (99.3%), good nutrition (99.5%), and prompt care-seeking when a child is sick (98.0%). Support for exclusive breastfeeding for six months was more moderate (67.0%), with 26.5% undecided. Belief in traditional herbal medicine for treating sick children was low (20.1%), while belief that a child’s health is determined by God received majority endorsement (87.8%). The mean attitude score was 48.74 (SD = 5.02) of 60 (81.2%). Attitude scores varied significantly across age, marital status, education, religion, occupation, income, number of children, distance from facility, and insurance status (p < 0.001 for all), though attitudes were not an independent predictor of maternal healthcare utilisation in a related regression analysis (p = 0.42). Conclusion: Mothers in Ado-Ekiti hold strongly positive attitudes towards evidence-based childcare practices, suggesting that low utilisation of some maternal services reflects practical and structural barriers rather than attitudinal deficits. Ambivalence towards exclusive breastfeeding and strong religious fatalism represent specific attitudinal targets for health education.