Abstract
Background: Exclusive breastfeeding has crucial importance on the lives of infants and young children. It provides all the energy and nutrients that infant needs for the first months of life. In sub-Saharan African countries including Somalia, the morbidity and mortality rates of infants and young children less than five years of age are high compared to developed countries. The main causes of these are mainly due to inadequate and sufficient EBF/BF practices with the combination of diseases like infant diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. Thus this study was aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of EBF in Somalia. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were collected from 384 mothers of infants less than 6 months of age residing in Northern side of Galkayo District using systematic sampling method. Cumulative Odds Ratio with 95% confidence interval was estimated using bivariate analysis with binary logistic regression model to identify independent determinants of exclusive breastfeeding practice. Results: Majority (99.7%) of the interviewed mothers had ever breastfed their baby. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was 5.2% whereas 94.8% did not exclusively breastfeed their baby up to the intended six months. A mother with formal education was a predictor to exclusive breastfeeding practice. Having formal education, health facility delivery, receiving EBF counseling and maternal unemployment were found to be predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice. Conclusion: The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was found to be very low compared to the WHO recommendations (5.2% in our study compared to 90% of WHO recommendations). However, our current study found that, majority (n= 221, 57.5%) of the women had knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding initiation. We recommend to strengthen the available basic services and to promote formal education on mothers in Somalia. We also recommend means to encourage mothers to deliver health facilities and to increase the awareness and counseling of EBF among pregnant mothers during their visit of ANC.
Highlights
Exclusive breastfeeding has been defined by WHO as “the situation where the infant has received only breast milk from his/her mother or a wet nurse or expressed milk until six months and no other liquids/solids with the exception of drops or syrups consisting of vitamins,mineral supplements or medicine” [1]
Infants whose mothers had formal education were more likely to be exclusively breastfed. This was in line with study in Malawi which indicated that mothers with secondary education are four times more likely to exclusively breastfed compared to those with no or primary education, so formal education was positive determinant of exclusive breastfeeding [9]
We conclude: That the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in our study for the age group 0-6 months in Galkayo were 5.2%% (n= 20) which is below the World Health Organization infant and young child feeding recommendations
Summary
Exclusive breastfeeding has been defined by WHO as “the situation where the infant has received only breast milk from his/her mother or a wet nurse or expressed milk until six months and no other liquids/solids with the exception of drops or syrups consisting of vitamins ,mineral supplements or medicine” [1]. In many countries in the world including Somalia, the morbidity and mortality rates of infant and young children under five years of age are high. The main causes of these deaths are mainly due to inadequate breastfeeding practices with combination of diseases like infant diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles [4]. In sub-Saharan African countries including Somalia, the morbidity and mortality rates of infants and young children less than five years of age are high compared to developed countries. The main causes of these are mainly due to inadequate and sufficient EBF/BF practices with the combination of diseases like infant diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. Having formal education, health facility delivery, receiving EBF counseling and maternal unemployment were found to be predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice.
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