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Background: Exclusive breastfeeding rates (EBRs) may be influenced by sociodemographic and sociocultural factors, including maternal age, socioeconomic status, education, and breastfeeding knowledge. The EBR in Jamaica has been low and declining, leaving a need for better determination of the specific local contributory factors., Objectives: This study aimed to better elucidate the factors that influence mothers exclusively breastfeeding, including antenatal intentions to breastfeed, mothers' knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding, and mothers' infant feeding practices in general, inclusive of breastfeeding, formula feeding, and complementary feeding., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a 52-item interviewer-administered questionnaire with mothers attending their 6-week postnatal clinic visit. Sociodemographic data were collected on all participants as well as data regarding participants' breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Statistical analyses were done using χ(2) tests, t tests, and risk analyses., Results: Two hundred participants were interviewed; the mean ± SD age of participants was 26.2 ± 6.46 years (range, 15-46 years). The EBR in this study sample was 32%. Sociodemographic factors, including maternal age and socioeconomic status, as well as antenatal and postnatal breastfeeding sessions, did not significantly affect the likelihood of exclusively breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum. The only factor significantly associated with the EBR was mothers' belief that exclusively breastfeeding was able to ensure infant satiety., Conclusion: Antenatal and postnatal breastfeeding sessions should place more emphasis on dispelling maternal myths and misperceptions regarding signs of satiety and hunger in infants and reinforcing the knowledge that breast milk alone is sufficient for the first 6 months of life., (© The Author(s) 2015.)

Deciding to take industrial action or go on strike has been an issue of great concern for nurses. While it is typical for most groups of workers to undertake industrial action in the pursuit of better wages and working conditions or improved quality of services, historically, nurses have found this a difficult course to pursue. Frequently, nurses have been caught between acceptance of themselves as ordinary workers and a professional model, which has carried with it the implication that a profession does not engage in industrial action (although, in reality, professions, including medical practitioners, have undertaken industrial action). Nurses in Australia have gone on strike, although widespread industrial action was not undertaken until the 1980s, when lengthy industrial campaigns, including strikes, were used in an effort to achieve enhanced status for the profession, improved career paths and increased salaries. While debate remains about the efficacy of this course of action, large numbers of nurses have been involved in these campaigns. Significant changes in salaries and status were achieved in the 1980s.