Impact of Baby-Friendly Hospital Practices on Breastfeeding in Hong Kong

Abstract

Greater exposure to Baby-Friendly practices would substantially increase new mothers' chances of breastfeeding beyond 8 weeks postpartum. To further improve maternity care practices in hospitals, institutional and administrative support are required to ensure all mothers receive adequate breastfeeding support in accordance with WHO guidelines.

Timely Initiation of Complementary Feeding and Associated Factors among Children Aged 6 to 12 Months in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 2015

“…Most of the deaths are often associated with inappropriate feeding practices [12], lack of knowledge and skill about complementary feeding [12,13], lack of sufficient food (food insecurity) [4,8] and lack of timely initiating of complementary feeding [4,12].…”

“…The world health organization has defined complementary feeding period as the period during which other foods or liquids are provided along with breast milk and any nutrient containing foods or liquids given to young children after exclusive breastfeeding is critical and adequate for the first six months of child [4][5][6][7][8]. The most crucial time to meet child's nutritional requirements is the first two years of life [4,8].…”

“…Less than one-third of [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] months old children met the minimum criteria for dietary diversity [8,9], and only 50% received the minimum number of meals and only 21% of children aged 6-23 months met the minimum criteria [9]. Infant formula supplementation at any age is uncommon in Ethiopia [10].…”

“…The most crucial time to meet child's nutritional requirements is the first two years of life [4,8].…”

Effect of a hospital policy of not accepting free infant formula on in-hospital formula supplementation rates and breast-feeding duration

“…Despite this BFHI guideline, financial incentives mean many hospitals that are not BFHI accredited continue to accept infant formula products from the manufacturers (16) . Research has highlighted that early infant formula supplementation is one of the strongest predictors of early breast-feeding cessation (8,11,(19)(20)(21) . Providing mothers with infant formula samples upon hospital discharge has also been shown to shorten breast-feeding duration (22,23) .…”