Abstract
BackgroundBreastfeeding is one of the components of Primary Health Care in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia a wide range of harmful infant feeding practices has been documented despite the implementation of infant and young child feeding guidelines. However, there is no well documented study of women’s perception of breastfeeding patterns and factors associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding (with timely initiation of breastfeeding being within the first hour) in rural communities of Arba Minch Zuria.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Arba Minch Zuria from January to February, 2012. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of 383 respondents supplemented by qualitative data generated using in-depth interviews of 10 key informants. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of delayed initiation of breastfeeding practices. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic frameworks.ResultsIn the rural communities of Arba Minch Zuria almost all mothers (98.2%) have ever breastfed their children. More than three-fourth (89%) of mothers provided colostrum to their infants while others discarded the first milk until the white milk was produced. A large number of mothers (42.8%) started breastfeeding one hour after childbirth. Delayed initiation of breastfeeding was positively associated with lack of maternal education (AOR 1.91; 95% CI 1.02, 3.44). Maternal knowledge about the duration of exclusive breastfeeding (AOR 0.39; 95% CI 0.15, 0.93), attending a primary health education (AOR 0.74; 95% 0.15, 0.98) and health personnel support for women at delivery time (AOR 0.52; 95% CI 0.21, 0.58) were inversely associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding practices.ConclusionsA large number of mothers (42.8%) were short of the national and global recommendations about breastfeeding initiation. Therefore, sustained health and community based nutritional education is recommended for pregnant and lactating mothers to promote optimal breastfeeding for the initiation of breastfeeding practices using health extension workers and local community resource people as key actors.
Highlights
Breastfeeding is one of the components of Primary Health Care in Ethiopia
Arba Minch Zuria is a part of the Gamo Gofa zone, which is located in the Southern part of Ethiopia
Despite national attempts to optimize breastfeeding practices, 43% of mothers in Arba Minch Zuria started breastfeeding after one hour of childbirth which is relatively low when compared with 2011 Ethiopian demographic and health survey (EDHS), which was 52%
Summary
Breastfeeding is one of the components of Primary Health Care in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia a wide range of harmful infant feeding practices has been documented despite the implementation of infant and young child feeding guidelines. Sub-optimal child feeding practices and dietary inadequacy is the major public health problem resulting in serious social and economic consequences in the world [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Timely initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour is often delayed by due to traditional practices like prelacteal feeding and social beliefs in developing countries [5,6,7,8,9,10]. In developing countries like Ethiopia early and abrupt cessation of breastfeeding, delayed initiation of breastfeeding, introduction of dirty and unsound artificial feeding of infants with very dilute milk products is common [1,5,11]. Infants and young children are exposed to malnutrition and infectious disease as their body nutrient stores are not well developed [3,4,12]
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