Infant feeding practices and their relation to maternal health care utilization : a national cross-sectional study among Ghanaian women
Adu, Louisa Owusuaa (2015)
Adu, Louisa Owusuaa
2015
Master's Degree Programme in Health Sciences
Terveystieteiden yksikkö - School of Health Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-04-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201505201448
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201505201448
Tiivistelmä
Background: Adequate infant feeding enhances growth, overall health and survival of infants in the early years of life and throughout the life cycle. Furthermore, maternal health care services offer mothers education on infant feeding and care. As Ghana seeks to achieve optimal universal health and survival for all mothers and children through targeted policy making, this study makes significant contributions to the current literature on maternal health care utilization and infant feeding that can help to identify vulnerable groups that require immediate attention. The aim of this study is to determine the association between components of maternal health care utilization and infant feeding practices such as: breastfeeding initiation, prelacteal feeding and continued breastfeeding.
Methods: Data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) carried out as the fifth round in a series of national level population and health surveys was used. The survey covers information on maternal health, family planning, fertility, child health and nutrition. This present study focused on women (N= 2099) of the reproductive age group 15 to 49 with live births within five years preceding the study. Timing of first antenatal care visit, number of antenatal care visits, place of delivery and mode of delivery were used as the components of maternal health care utilization. Breastfeeding initiation, prelacteal feeding and continued breastfeeding beyond six months were the infant feeding practices evaluated in this study. Logistic regression analyses was used to calculate the odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for infant feeding practices.
Results: In total, 52.5% of women initiated breastfeeding within an hour after birth. Only few women (18.1%) offered prelacteal foods to their infants within three days after birth and 78% of women continued breastfeeding beyond six months. Having a cesarean delivery and a non-institutional delivery was significantly associated with a lesser likelihood of initiating breastfeeding within 1 hour after delivery (OR for Cesarean delivery 0.11, 95% CI 0.12-0.27, OR for non-institutional delivery 0.78, 95% CI 0.62-0.99) and a higher likelihood of prelacteal feeding (OR for Cesarean delivery 1.92, 95% CI 1.19-3.09, OR for non-institutional delivery 1.98, 95% CI 1.42-2.76) in the first three days after delivery. Late antenatal care (after the first trimester) was found to be associated with lower odds of breastfeeding beyond six months (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.59-0.99). Women belonging to the African traditional religion and the poor wealth quintile were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within an hour after birth and many unmarried women had a higher probability of prelacteal feeding. Moreover, women of the age groups of 25 to 49 years showed significant associations with continued breastfeeding beyond six months.
Conclusion: This study showed that infant feeding practices were partly determined by maternal health care utilization during pregnancy. Therefore, components of maternal health care utilization should be addressed when scaling-up infant feeding in Ghana.
Methods: Data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) carried out as the fifth round in a series of national level population and health surveys was used. The survey covers information on maternal health, family planning, fertility, child health and nutrition. This present study focused on women (N= 2099) of the reproductive age group 15 to 49 with live births within five years preceding the study. Timing of first antenatal care visit, number of antenatal care visits, place of delivery and mode of delivery were used as the components of maternal health care utilization. Breastfeeding initiation, prelacteal feeding and continued breastfeeding beyond six months were the infant feeding practices evaluated in this study. Logistic regression analyses was used to calculate the odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for infant feeding practices.
Results: In total, 52.5% of women initiated breastfeeding within an hour after birth. Only few women (18.1%) offered prelacteal foods to their infants within three days after birth and 78% of women continued breastfeeding beyond six months. Having a cesarean delivery and a non-institutional delivery was significantly associated with a lesser likelihood of initiating breastfeeding within 1 hour after delivery (OR for Cesarean delivery 0.11, 95% CI 0.12-0.27, OR for non-institutional delivery 0.78, 95% CI 0.62-0.99) and a higher likelihood of prelacteal feeding (OR for Cesarean delivery 1.92, 95% CI 1.19-3.09, OR for non-institutional delivery 1.98, 95% CI 1.42-2.76) in the first three days after delivery. Late antenatal care (after the first trimester) was found to be associated with lower odds of breastfeeding beyond six months (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.59-0.99). Women belonging to the African traditional religion and the poor wealth quintile were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within an hour after birth and many unmarried women had a higher probability of prelacteal feeding. Moreover, women of the age groups of 25 to 49 years showed significant associations with continued breastfeeding beyond six months.
Conclusion: This study showed that infant feeding practices were partly determined by maternal health care utilization during pregnancy. Therefore, components of maternal health care utilization should be addressed when scaling-up infant feeding in Ghana.