Abstract
A COVID-19 lockdown and restrictive order has had a large impact on the lives of people. This cross-sectional study was conducted to identify factors affecting breastfeeding among mothers living in Thailand during the lockdown. Data were collected from 903 mothers with infants ages 0–12 months from 17 July 2020 to 17 October 2020 after the first nationwide COVID-19 lockdown period by an online platform and interview questionnaire survey. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between the effect of lockdown and breastfeeding practices with potential confounder adjustment including maternal age, ethnicity, newborn age <6 months, family income below $16,130 per annum, education below undergraduate level, and working status. Mothers changed breastfeeding practices in this period (n = 39, 4.32%) including having changed from exclusive breastfeeding to combined breastfeeding with formula milk (n = 22, 2.44%), and having reduced the frequency when compared to before the pandemic (n = 13, 1.44%). The associated factors of changing breastfeeding practices were “contact with healthcare services” (aOR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.96, p = 0.04), “infant feeding support from health personnel” (aOR = 0.39, 95% CI 0.16 to 1.94, p = 0.035), and “lack family support and help with feeding your baby after lockdown” (aOR = 7.04, 95% CI 1.92 to 25.84, p = 0.003). In conclusion, this study showed a slight decrease in breastfeeding in the sampled mothers during the COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand. A long-term national surveillance system for maintenance of breastfeeding should be established. Health care service interventions and additional information are needed to support mothers and families for breastfeeding during pandemics.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a worldwide crisis and has severely impacted all countries, with more than 179 million confirmed cases as of 25 June 2021, including 3,899,172 deaths [1]
This study aimed to identify factors affecting breastfeeding practices among mothers living in Thailand during the lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic
Our study revealed that breastfeeding practices of most participants during the COVID-19 lockdown remained similar to the patterns before lockdown
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a worldwide crisis and has severely impacted all countries, with more than 179 million confirmed cases as of 25 June 2021, including 3,899,172 deaths [1]. COVID-19 indicates the magnitude of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and pandemic influenza, indicating a risk of global spread. Social distancing is the practice of increasing the space between people to decrease the chance of spreading illness [4]. All individuals can take part in reducing the risk of infection and have the potential to slow the rate of infection during this pandemic. Social distancing via lockdown or stay-at-home order has been the most restrictive policy and is a preventive measure to protect healthy people from infection and is highly important to control COVID-19 [5,6,7]
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