Colostrum feeding practice and associated factors among mothers attending child immunization clinic at public healthcare facilities in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Colostrum is yellow to orange colored milk produced during a first few days of lactation and it is rich in nutrients and antibodies that have great role in health of the new born baby. Despite the World Health Organization recommends that every new born baby has to feed breast milk with colostrum within one hour of delivery; poor colostrum feeding practice is still a common problem in Ethiopia.
Objective: Assess the practice of colostrum feeding and related factors among women attending a child immunization clinic in governmental health facilities in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia, in 2022. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 1–30/2022 in governmental health facilities of Dire Dawa city administrative among 292 mothers with baby less than or equal to 12 months. The data were collected by systematic random sampling technique and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences 25.0 version. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses was employed to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio with confidence interval of 95% and P value of less than 0.05 considered statistically significant.
Result: 68.8% (95% CI: 63.4-74.3) of the mothers had good colostrum feeding practice. Living in an urban area (AOR=2.52, 95% CI=1.08-5.88), having at least a secondary education (AOR=2.79, 95% CI=1.12-6.98), having visited an antenatal clinic in the past (AOR=3.12, 95% CI=1.12-9.21, receiving counseling on when to start breastfeeding (AOR=2.59, 95% CI=1.02-6.59), receiving colostrum feeding counseling (AOR=2.65, 95% CI=1.12-6.30), having a professional attend the birth (AOR=3.20, 95% CI=1.23-8.31), getting information from a professional (AOR=3.89, 95% CI=1.54-9.82), and having good knowledge of colostrum feeding (AOR=3.53, 95% CI=1.56-7.96) were found to be associated with practice of colostrum feeding.
Conclusion: In the present study, even if more than two-thirds of mothers have good practice of colostrum feeding, still its gap is wide with WHO recommendation on timely initiation of BF, with colostrum of more than 80%. Promoting antenatal care visits and maternal education on breastfeeding is recommended for the increasing colostrum feeding practice of the mothers.