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Back ground: Neonatal death remained a global public health issue, especially in Ethiopia due to sub-optimal breast-feeding practices. While several interventions have been made to comply with the WHO guideline, sub-optimal feeding practices are commonly seen in Ethiopia. The goal of this study was therefore to identify gaps in optimal breast-feeding practice in South West Ethiopia.Objective: To assess the prevalence and determinant of early days of newborn feeding mal-practices among recently delivered women in Mizan-Aman Town, southwestern Ethiopia, 2020.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken on recently delivered women from March-April/2020. A total of 487 mothers-child (<12month) pair were selected by using multistage randomized sampling technique and the data was collected through face to face interview by using structured questionnaire. The result was analyzed via SPSS version 26. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess determinant of newborn feeding mal-practices and a p<0.05 was deem to be significant.Result: Prevalence of prelacteal feeding and colostrum avoidance was approximately 21.9% and 15.5% respectively. The most common prelacteal food was Rue / Tenadam/49 (10.1 %). The key reasons were: 49(10.1 %) Cultural activity followed by 45 (9.3 %) clean-up of the intestine / throat / mouth of babies. Determinants of pre-lacteal feeding were found to be: mothers recognizing risks of prelacteal feeding, multipara mothers, having ≥4 number of children and infant’s birth order 4-6. Likewise, exposure to infant formula advertisement, absence of home to home health education, multipara mothers and spontaneous vaginal birth were the determinants of colostrum avoidance.Conclusion: The study found that there was a sub-optimal breast-feeding practice, one in four newborns. As a result, activities to discourage pre-lacteal feeding and to improve early initiation of colostrum feeding practices shall be carried out.

BackgroundEthiopian government implemented baby-friendly hospital initiative and community integrated management of childhood illnesses program. Despite early initiation of breastfeeding taken as a key tool for tackling neonatal mortality, EIBF is still low and most of the neonatal mortalities were existed due to delayed initiation of breastfeeding in Ethiopia in general and the practice is not well documented in South West Ethiopia in particular. Therefore, this study aimed to assess early initiation of breastfeeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged less than six months of old in Mizan-Aman town, southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was employed from April 15 to May 15, 2018. A total of 487 recently delivered mothers were included. The data was collected through face to face interview by using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed and p-value < 0.05 was identified as statistically significant factors, and the quality of the data were assured, checked, coded, cleaned and entered in Epi-Info version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 25 for the analysis. ResultThe prevalence of timely initiation of breast feeding was 296(64.50%) in Mizan- Aman Town. Mothers who had < 24 months birth spacing history 1.85(AOR: 95% CI: 1.22, 2.81), mothers’ income level between 1001-1500 Ethiopian Birr 2.21 (AOR: 95% CI: 1.12, 4.37), Primipara mothers 2.00 (AOR: 95% CI: 1.24, 3.23) and home delivery 2.76(AOR: 95% CI: 1.24, 6.14) were important positive predictors for timely initiation of breast feeding. Furthermore, Government employee and merchant mother by occupation was found to be protective factors.Conclusion and recommendationThe practice of early initiation of breast feeding was suboptimal and still below the national average. Intervention at the community and facility level should paid special attention.