Breastfeeding experiencesFive among the breastfeeding mothers described theirbreastfeeding experiences as challenging and stressful,especially with male children. However, three othermothers argued that a child’ s s ex might not be the soledeterminant in most cases. To this l atter g roup, breast-feeding experiences could be both stressful and pleasur-able. A consensus among the breastfeeding mothers wasthat ’breastfeeding is a test of endurance for a mother andit is a way of showing love to one’schild’. Similarly, manyof the grandmothers also described breastfeeding as anecessity. To one of the grandmothers:Only women breast can produce milk and for this reason,a mother must breastfeed her infant. Once a woman ispregnant, she must be aware of the fact that she m ust beawake to breastfeed her child even at night (Grandmother,aged 66).One of t he nursing mothers described her experienceas:‘It has not been stressful for me to breastfeed especiallyat night because it is a necessity that I must do (Breast-feeding Mother, aged 27).A further probe on what helped the breastfeedingmothers to choose breastfeeding showed that encour-agement from their own mothers was predominant(84%). Social pressure (67%) and personal d etermina-tion/experience (65%) attracted s imilar proportions.Encouragements from husbands and nurses/midwivesattracted 51 and 46 percent respectively (Table 4). Inthe in-depth interviews with nurses, a number of thenurses described their involv ement in regular hea ltheducation on breastfeeding during antenatal and postna-tal visits to the health facility. This form of educationwas described as an essential responsibility that shouldbe undertaken at the household level.