Browsing by Author "Churchill, Rebecca Ometse"

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    Determinants of early initiation of breastfeeding among parturients within the first hour after delivery in health facilities in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality
    (JUNE, 2016) Churchill, Rebecca Ometse
    Background: In terms of global and national focus and strategies to reduce child mortality, early breastfeeding within one hour after parturition followed by exclusive breastfeeding has proved to increase child survival as the practice gives babies the required resistance to diseases through mothers’ antibodies which in turn lowers the incidence of child morbidity and mortality. Method: The study was conducted by the use of a hospital-based cross-sectional method to determine the factors that influence early initiation of breastfeeding among parturients. Purposive sampling was used to sample 303 parturients who delivered from 1st June to 30th July 2015. Pre-tested and standardized questionnaires, direct observations and medical record review were used to collect relevant data by trained research assistants. The data were analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics and binary logic regression model. Results: The logistic regression results revealed that parturients’ knowledge on colostrum feeding (p< 0.001), knowledge on time of initiation of breastfeeding (p<0.007), parity (p<0.001), establishing early contact between mother and her baby within thirty minutes of delivery on delivery table (p<0.000), sex of baby delivered (p<0.004) and time of initiation (p<0.001) were statistically significant to early initiation of breastfeeding at1%. The results also showed that duration of labour (p<0.052) and ward procedures influenced (p<0.023) early initiation of breastfeeding negatively at 5%. Conclusion: A strong association between breastfeeding and early contact between baby and mother (p = 0.000). The findings suggest increasing access to timely initiation of breastfeeding through early contact of mothers and babies irrespective of the mode of delivery.