Determinants of early days of newborn feeding mal-practice among mothers of children less than one years of age in Mizan-Aman Town, South-west Ethiopia, 2020

Abstract Back ground: Neonatal death remained a global public health issue, especially in Ethiopia due to sub-optimal breast-feeding practices. While several interventions have been made to comply with the WHO guideline, sub-optimal feeding practices are commonly seen in Ethiopia. The goal of this study was therefore to identify gaps in optimal breast-feeding practice in South West Ethiopia.Objective: To assess the prevalence and determinant of early days of newborn feeding mal-practices among recently delivered women in Mizan-Aman Town, southwestern Ethiopia, 2020.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken on recently delivered women from March-April/2020. A total of 487 mothers-child (<12month) pair were selected by using multistage randomized sampling technique and the data was collected through face to face interview by using structured questionnaire. The result was analyzed via SPSS version 26. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess determinant of newborn feeding mal-practices and a p<0.05 was deem to be significant.Result: Prevalence of prelacteal feeding and colostrum avoidance was approximately 21.9% and 15.5% respectively. The most common prelacteal food was Rue / Tenadam/49 (10.1 %). The key reasons were: 49(10.1 %) Cultural activity followed by 45 (9.3 %) clean-up of the intestine / throat / mouth of babies. Determinants of pre-lacteal feeding were found to be: mothers recognizing risks of prelacteal feeding, multipara mothers, having ≥4 number of children and infant’s birth order 4-6. Likewise, exposure to infant formula advertisement, absence of home to home health education, multipara mothers and spontaneous vaginal birth were the determinants of colostrum avoidance.Conclusion: The study found that there was a sub-optimal breast-feeding practice, one in four newborns. As a result, activities to discourage pre-lacteal feeding and to improve early initiation of colostrum feeding practices shall be carried out.