Communities and employers show a high level of preparedness in supporting working mothers to combine breastfeeding with work in rural Kenya

Community Readiness Model (CRM) through pragmatic mixed methods design, combining quantitative CRM survey with qualitative data, was used to assess the level of preparedness and readiness among local leaders, employers and community members in supporting working mothers to combine breastfeeding with work. The study was conducted in one of the tea state farms in Kericho County of Kenya. A total of 17 purposively selected men (fathers), lactating mothers, peer educators, health professionals (doctors, nurses and nutritionists), tea plantation managers and grandmothers were interviewed. The CRM that has six different dimensions was applied to determine the stage of readiness to support working mothers to combine breastfeeding with work. Community Readiness Score (CRS) was calculated descriptively as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Thematic analysis using NVIVO software was used to analyse qualitative data. We found that the mean (±SD) CRS was 7.3 (1.9), which corresponded to the third highest level of the nine stages or the ‘stabilization’ stage of community readiness. Dimensionally, the mean CRS was the highest (8.3 ± 1.9) for leadership followed by community efforts (7.5 ± 2.1), whereas the lowest CRS was observed for knowledge of efforts (6.6 ± 2.3) and availability of resources (6.6 ± 1.9). In conclusion, high level of readiness to support working women to combine work with breastfeeding with suboptimal knowledge of efforts and availability of resources was observed in the area. Future interventions should focus on enabling the community to feel more comfortable and creating detailed and refined knowledge on combining breastfeeding with work.