Early Initiation of Breastfeeding Practices in Riyadh Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA.
Journal Title: Advance Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Discoveries - Year 2017, Vol 18, Issue 10
Abstract
Background It is widely recognized that child feeding practices in the first two years of life directly affect the nutritional status of the children and, ultimately, impact child lifelong health. Therefore, breastfeeding is regarded as the ideal method of infant feeding that provides maximum benefits to both the infant and the mother. The assessment of breastfeeding practices and determinants are essential to make national and sub-national comparisons, to describe trends over time, identify populations at risk, target interventions, and make appropriate policy decisions for sustainable breastfeeding promotion programs. The aim of this paper is to examine the current practices on breastfeeding in Riyadh Region, of Saudi Arabia, and determine the likely factors that affect breastfeeding practices in this country. Methods A comprehensive, in-depth, health facility-based survey of mothers with infants less than 24 months of age was conducted to assess the patterns and determinants of breastfeeding. A convenient sample of 500 Saudi mothers was interviewed to recall their breastfeeding practices and attitude. The interviews included a detailed questionnaire based on the WHO (2010) infant and young child feeding assessment adapted for the case of the Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the study used the standard WHO criteria for assessing breastfeeding indicators of the targeted population. Results The study population comprised of 54% male and 46% female children. Exclusive breastfeeding rate for up to six months was very low (2.9%). Although breastfeeding rate in general was over 90% yet, early initiation of breastfeeding was found 38% among the respondents (29% of mothers initiated breastfeeding within the first 24 hours and 23% initiated breastfeeding after the first 24 hours). Reasons reported for delayed response to early initiation of breast feeding (for the first hour) include caesarian operation, late discharge of the child from incubator, mother sickness, child sickness and to a lesser extend lack of knowledge about breastfeeding and culturalfactors (traditions). Breastfeeding initiation showed increasing trend with high mother education; mothers being not working; vaginal delivery; female child; and among infants with previous child aged 3 to 5 years. The proportion of children born in the last 24 months who were ever breastfed was found among 62% of infants while, never breastfeed children represented about 9.6% of the total sample and the reasons reported by the respondent mothers were child sickness, child refusal, no enough milk, mother sickness and body image. Conclusions In conclusion, infant and young child feeding practices in this study were suboptimal. There is a need for ensuring that not only is appropriate national policies and legislation in place but that these are implemented and enforced. National community-based breastfeeding intervention programmes are urgently needed for the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding. More in-depth research is required to feed into the design of strategies for effective social and behavior change communication.
Authors and Affiliations
Osama Awad Salih, Adam Elhag Ahmed
Keywords
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