Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice and Associated Factors among Mothers in Boditi Town, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2018: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Exclusive breastfeeding tops the table of life-saving interventions for newborns. A child who is exclusively breastfed is 14 times less likely to die in the first six months compared to its counterpart. Approximately 18,000 children globally still die every day and if current trend continues, some 60 million children under age 5 will die between 2017 and 2030, and half of them will be newborns. Five countries, including Ethiopia, accounted for half of all newborn deaths in the world. Objective To assess the prevalence and associated factors of exclusive breastfeeding practice among mothers who have infants 6-12 months of age in Boditi Town, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2018. Methods Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 412 randomly selected mothers having 6 to 12 month infants from April 1 to 14, 2018. A pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were entered using Epi Data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics was made. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was also carried out to see the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable. Results Of 412 mother-infant pairs sampled, 403 were participated, which made a response rate of 97.8%. Prevalence of EBF computed using since birth dietary recall method was 64.8% (95% C.I= 60.0, 69.0). From multivariable analysis, child birth attended by health care provider (AOR = 5.303, 95% C.I = 1.613, 17.436), postnatal care utilization (AOR = 1.91, C.I = 1.083, 3.370), and mothers who did not report any breast related problem for the first six months after child birth (AOR = 1.864, C.I = 1.090, 3.189) were factors positively associated with exclusive breastfeeding practice. Conclusion Although the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding practice in this study was relatively high, more effort to meet World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations is still necessary to benefit from its intervention. There is a need to promote child births to be attended by health care providers and postnatal care utilization. Further, women should be educated on what to do and where to seek care if breast problem occurs after child birth.

Exploring the determinants of exclusive breastfeeding among infants under-six months in Ethiopia using multilevel analysis

“…The possible explanation may be that postnatal care utilization is the best opportunity to increase the knowledge and attitude of mothers towards exclusive breastfeeding through counseling and health education since it is the appropriate period of counseling and educating mothers about essential feeding practices including EBF. Thus, as the number of women who visited postnatal care in the community increases the more likely to practice exclusive breastfeeding [ 18 , 19 ].…”

“…Even if the government of Ethiopia tried to promote and implement EBF practice for infants under- six months of age but still there is a poor improvement [ 14 ]. This could be due to several contributing factors including the low level of educational status, maternal employment, operative delivery, late initiation of breastfeeding, low antenatal and postnatal visits, increased production of formula foods, and poor counseling of mother regarding EBF [ 10 , 15 – 18 ]. Furthermore, EBF practice was influenced by community- level factors including place of residence, contextual region, community level of maternal education, community level of ANC and PNC utilization, community- level of employment, and community level of media exposure [ 19 – 21 ].…”

Multidimensional factors predicting exclusive breastfeeding in Ethiopia: evidence from a meta-analysis of studies in the past 10 years

“…Seventeen studies [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] involving 14,691 mothers reported the association between maternal educational status and EBF (Table 1a). Seven studies were conducted in Amhara region, five in SNNPR, and four studies in Addis Ababa, Afar, and Tigray.…”

“…Seven studies 54,55,57,58,[70][71][72] in 3,165 mothers reported the association between parity and EBF (Table 1f). Four studies conducted in Amhara region, and the other three studies conducted in Addis Ababa, Afar, and SNNPR region.…”

Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration to Six Months: A Literature Review of Factors and Barriers from 2010 to 2020

“…A child who is exclusively breastfed is 14 times less likely to die in the first six months compared to its matching part. Around 18,000 children worldwide silent die daily, 60 million children below age 5 will die between 2017 and 2030, and 50% of them will be newborns (Azeze et al, 2019). Unfortunately, one third of the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) had EBF below 20% (UN IGME, 2017& Abul-Fadl et al, 2019.…”