Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends rooming-in to reduce infant mortality rates. Little research has been done to assess practices such as rooming-in and its relation to breastfeeding in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of rooming-in during hospital stay among mothers with infants six months old and below, in addition to other associated factors in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This study utilized a sub-sample extracted from a dataset based on a convenience sample of mothers who were recruited from governmental maternal and child health centers as well as from the community. The purpose of the original research was to evaluate infant and young children’s feeding practices. A pre-tested questionnaire was used during interviews with mothers once ethical clearance was in place. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to describe the results. The original sample included 1822 participants, of which 804 infants met the inclusion criteria. The mean age for mothers and infants was 30.3 years and 3.5 months, respectively. The rate of rooming-in during hospital stay was 97.5%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated factors associated with not rooming-in were low maternal age (Adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.30), low gestational age (GA) (AOR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.52, 2.36), abnormal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (AOR = 3.77, 95 % CI: 1.22, 11.76), and delayed initiation of breastfeeding (AOR = 4.47, 95 % CI: 1.08, 18.48). In the context of the high rate of rooming-in revealed in this study, there should be a focus on those groups who do not room-in (i.e., younger women and those with babies of a younger gestational age). Rooming-in practice provides self-confidence in taking care of a baby, knowledge about breastfeeding, and stimulates early-phase lactation.
Highlights
The practice of rooming-in, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is one of the ten steps for hospitals with maternity facilities to be accredited as a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH) [1]
Socio-demographic factors were analyzed to describe their significance among mothers who reportedly roomed-in and those who did not (Table 1)
Results of this study showed that factors associated with not rooming-in included maternal age, gestational age (GA), pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), and initiation of breastfeeding
Summary
The practice of rooming-in, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is one of the ten steps for hospitals with maternity facilities to be accredited as a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH) [1]. The practice of rooming-in, as defined by the WHO and UNICEF, is a “hospital practice where postnatal mothers and normal infants stay together in the same room for 24 h a day from the time they arrive in their room after delivery” [2]. Research shows that rooming-in plays a critical role in initiation of breastfeeding and enhances skin-to-skin contact, protecting infants from the risk of infections potentially contracted from other infants or health personnel [4,5]. Other advantages of rooming-in include the promotion of early breastfeeding and encouragement of maternal–infant bonding, increases to the mother’s confidence, and the contribution of protection against stress related to change in the parenting role for some mothers. It has been well documented that newborn babies kept in a separate nursery, which used to be common practice, would be a reason to receive significantly more breastmilk substitutes and less breastmilk than babies who are kept in the same room with their mothers [6]
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