Timely Initiation of Breastfeeding and Its Associated Factors among Mothers in Tiyo Woreda, Arsi Zone, Ethiopia: A Community- Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background - Timely initiation of breastfeeding is a recommended practice by the World Health Organization since 1992 which says "initiate breastfeeding within one hour of delivery, though it is not a usual practice in Ethiopia. Untimely initiation of breastfeeding has negative effect on child health, survival, growth and development. Therefore, this study was assessed the timely initiation of breastfeeding and its associated factors among mothers who have child less than one year age in Tiyo Woreda, Arsi zone, Ethiopia. Methods - A community based cross sectional study design was employed in Tiyo District from October to November 2014. The sample size was 386. Households with mothers who had just delivered within the past year were identified through census and sampling frame was developed. Finally study subjects were addressed through simple random sampling. Data were collected using interviewer administered pre-tested and structured questionnaire. The data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and then exported SPSS version 21 windows for analyses. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the prevalence and logistic regression analysis was used to identify determinants of timely initiation of breast feeding and P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results - The prevalence of timely initiation of breastfeeding of this study is 67.3%. Mothers with formal education were more likely to initiate breastfeeding timely (AOR=4.501, CI: 1.08, 18.76). Mothers who gave birth at home were less likely to start breastfeeding timely than mothers who delivered at health institution with (AOR=0.13, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.35). Advice about timely initiation of breast feeding provided to mothers immediately after delivery was independently associated with timely initiation of breastfeeding (AOR=3.71,95% CI:1.45,9.48). Prevalence of timely initiation of breastfeeding of this study is encouraging. Conclusions - The advice for mothers on timely initiation of breastfeeding immediately after delivery and education had a positive impact, whereas a poor health status (such as mothers transported to hospitals) and home delivery had a negative impact on timely initiation of breastfeeding.