DETERMINANTS OF BREAST FEEDING PRACTICES AMONG MOTHERS ATTENDING PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES, MEKELLE, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA; A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Background– Breastfeeding and good nutrition for children are essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goals relating to child survival. Even though, most mothers in Ethiopia breastfeed their babies, they do not always follow the recommendations of the “National Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding”.

Objective– The aim of this study was to assess determinants of breastfeeding practices among mothers’ of children aged less than 24 months attending governmental maternal and child health clinics in Mekelle town.

Methods– Institution based cross sectional study was carried out among five health facilities selected using simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by interviewer administered structured questionnaire and it was entered, cleaned and analyzed by using SPSS for windows version 16.0. The proportion was used to describe the results and it was presented in the form of figures, tables and texts. The binary logistic regression model was used to test the association between dependent and independent variables.

Result– A total of 361 mothers with their index child were interviewed.  The ever breastfeeding rate in this study was 98.9%. The timely initiation rate of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were 77.9% and 60.8%, respectively.

Conclusion and recommendation-: A range of characteristics affects the practice of timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding. Coordination, strengthening and sustaining of the existing strategies and approaches for further improvement of optimal breastfeeding practice is recommended.