Early initiation of breastfeeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged less than six months of old in Mizan-Aman town, southwest Ethiopia, 2018

Abstract BackgroundEthiopian government implemented baby-friendly hospital initiative and community integrated management of childhood illnesses program. Despite early initiation of breastfeeding taken as a key tool for tackling neonatal mortality, EIBF is still low and most of the neonatal mortalities were existed due to delayed initiation of breastfeeding in Ethiopia in general and the practice is not well documented in South West Ethiopia in particular. Therefore, this study aimed to assess early initiation of breastfeeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged less than six months of old in Mizan-Aman town, southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was employed from April 15 to May 15, 2018. A total of 487 recently delivered mothers were included. The data was collected through face to face interview by using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed and p-value < 0.05 was identified as statistically significant factors, and the quality of the data were assured, checked, coded, cleaned and entered in Epi-Info version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 25 for the analysis. ResultThe prevalence of timely initiation of breast feeding was 296(64.50%) in Mizan- Aman Town. Mothers who had < 24 months birth spacing history 1.85(AOR: 95% CI: 1.22, 2.81), mothers’ income level between 1001-1500 Ethiopian Birr 2.21 (AOR: 95% CI: 1.12, 4.37), Primipara mothers 2.00 (AOR: 95% CI: 1.24, 3.23) and home delivery 2.76(AOR: 95% CI: 1.24, 6.14) were important positive predictors for timely initiation of breast feeding. Furthermore, Government employee and merchant mother by occupation was found to be protective factors.Conclusion and recommendationThe practice of early initiation of breast feeding was suboptimal and still below the national average. Intervention at the community and facility level should paid special attention.