Background. Breastfeeding is the act of milk conveyance from the mother to the infant. Adequate nutrition during infancy and early childhood are mandatory to ensure growth, health, and development of children to their maximum potential. The positioning of the baby’s body is important for maintaining good attachment and successful breastfeeding. Most difficulties of breastfeeding can be avoided altogether if good attachment and positioning can be achieved at the first and early feeds. Plenty of studies have been conducted to explore factors affecting breastfeeding practice in general; however, there is a meagerness of evidence that assesses factors affecting attachment and positioning during breastfeeding specifically. Therefore, the current study was aimed to assess positioning and attachment during breastfeeding among lactating mothers visiting health facilities of Areka town. Methods. an institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted by using observational checklist adopted from the World Health Organization breastfeeding observation form. Maternal-related characteristics were collected by using a structured and pretested questionnaire. The study was conducted from April to June 2017. Respondents were selected by using a systematic random sampling technique. Descriptive summaries were done to present pertinent findings and a chi-square test was used to check association between variables. Result. There was poorer positioning among primipara mothers (47.1%) than multipara mothers (28.7%). A poor attachment was also more apparent among primipara mothers which were more (31.1%) than the multipara (27.1%) mothers. Conclusion. Younger mothers (<20 years old), the primipara, and those who have no formal education deserve more attention, support, and direction to make sure that they can achieve proper positioning and attachment during breastfeeding at the first and early feeds.

Background. The first 28 days of life (the neonatal period) constitute the most vulnerable time for a child’s survival. Overall 2.7 million neonatal deaths were stated by the 2015 global report of neonatal mortality and they account for 45% of under-five deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest risk of death in the first month of life and is among the regions showing the least progress in reducing neonatal mortality in the world. Ethiopia, as part of sub-Saharan Africa, also shares the greatest risk of neonatal death. A recent report in Ethiopia showed that neonatal mortality was 29 deaths per 1,000 live births. Therefore, the signs that suggest the onset of severe illness which leads to death and their contributing factors should be identified. The aim of the study was to assess knowledge about neonatal danger signs and associated factors among mothers attending immunization clinic at Arba Minch General Hospital. Method. Institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed from Feb to April 2018. Systematic sampling technique was used to select a total of 345 mother-child pairs. A pretested, structured, and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered using Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Bivariate and multivariable analysis were carried out using binary logistic regression to check and test the association between dependent and explanatory variables. Model fitness was checked by Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test. Result. Nearly two-fifths (40.9%) of all mothers had good knowledge about neonatal danger signs (95% CI; 35.7, 46.4). Close to thirty-three percent of mothers identified child’s body hotness (fever) as a neonatal danger sign. Maternal educational status (AOR: 5.64; 95% CI: 1.68, 18.95) and attendance of postnatal care (AOR: 2.64; 95% CI: 1.36, 5.15) were significantly associated with maternal knowledge about neonatal danger signs in multivariable analysis. Conclusion. Even though considerable improvement has been achieved over the past decades as a result of expanded coverage of maternal and childcare services, still there are a significant number of mothers who have limited knowledge about neonatal danger signs. Therefore, interventional strategies that stress strengthening maternal education and ANC follow-up should be extended.

Background. Growing evidence suggests that inadequate intake, poor caring practices, and disease process were some of the immediate and major causes of undernutrition in children. This points out that infant and young child feeding were the basic grounds to improve child survival and promote healthy growth and development. The first two years of a child’s life are particularly important, as optimal nutrition during this period lowers morbidity and mortality, reduces the risk of chronic disease, and enhances the chances of better development. The study was aimed to assess sick infant and young child feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged less than 24 months old in the Burayu town Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods. Institutional based cross-sectional study design was utilized. The study was conducted from April-May, 2015 among 362 mother–child pair attending the maternal and childcare (MCH) units of the two public health facilities in the Burayu town. Bivariate and multivariable analysis was done to test the relationship between the explanatory and outcome variables and the odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and the p-value was used to ascertain statistical significance. Result. More than half (53.6%) of all mothers fed their child more frequently at the time of illness than at a time of health. The mean age of respondents was 25.41 ± 3.56 and ranged from 15−30 years. Nearly three out of five (60.8%) of the respondents attended no formal education. A mother who had got counseling on sick child feeding were nearly three times more likely to feed their child appropriately than their counterparts (AOR: 2.95; 95% CI; 1.78, 4.91). Mothers who were housewives were 55% times less likely to feed their sick child appropriately than those who were working (AOR: 0.45; 95% CI; 0.26, 0.79). Those mothers who have a child aged less than 6 months were 88% less likely to practice appropriate sick child feeding than those who have a child aged more than 6 months (AOR: 0.22; 95% CI; 0.12,0.40). Conclusion. Respondents who do not receive counseling on infant and young child feeding have poor sick child feeding practice. Working mother had owned better practices of feeding child particularly at the time of illness. Infants below the age of 6 months deserve more concern in providing frequent breastfeeds at the time of illness.

BackgroundHealth professionals equipped with the adequate skills of helping baby breath remain the backbone in the health system in improving neonatal outcomes. However, there is a great controversy between studies to show the proximate factors of the skills of health care providers in helping babies breathe. In Ethiopia, there is a paucity of evidence on the current status of health care provider’s skills of helping babies breathe despite the improvement in neonatal health care services. Therefore, this study intends to fill those gaps in assessing the skills of helping babies breathe and its associated factors among health professionals in public hospitals in Southern Ethiopia.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 441 health professionals from March 10 to 30, 2019. A simple random sampling method was used to select the study participants. The data were collected through pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and observational checklist. A binary logistic regression model was used to identify significant factors for the skills of helping babies breathe by using SPSS version 25. The P-value < 0.05 used to declare statistical significance.ResultsOverall, 71.1% (95%CI: 66.2, 75.4%) of health professionals had good skills in helping babies breathe. Age group from 25 to 34 (AOR = 2.24; 95%CI: 1.04, 4.81), training on helping babies breathe (AOR = 2.69; 95%CI: 1.49, 4.87), well-equipped facility (AOR = 2.15; 95%CI: 1.09, 4.25), and adequate knowledge on helping babies breathe (AOR = 2.21; 95%CI: 1.25, 3.89) were significantly associated with a health professionals good skill on helping babies breathe.ConclusionsEven though a significant number of care providers had good skills in helping babies breathe, yet there is a need to further improve the skills of the provider in helping babies breathe. Hence, health facilities should be equipped with adequate materials and facilitate frequent training to the provider.

Background Ethiopia enforced extremely rigorous contact tracing and mandatory quarantine for all suspected contact and travelers entering the country for a period of 14-days duration during the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak. Several studies investigated the experience of quarantined people because of COVID-19 or previous outbreaks. However, quarantine is often perceived differently in different cultures because of its historical association with class, gender, ethnicity, politics, and prejudices. To our knowledge, there is limited literature on quarantine experience in Ethiopia related to either COVID-19 or other infectious diseases. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore quarantine experience of people in Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia during early phase of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The study implemented an exploratory qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with purposively recruited 29 respondents. Digitally recorded audio files have been listened to several times and verbatim transcriptions were done. The transcribed narratives were examined independently and content analysis was carried out through reading and re-reading the verbatim several times, open coding, grouping, categorizing, and abstracting the final themes. Results Three broad themes were identified and characterized the experiences of quarantined people due to COVID-19. These themes were a) handling of the suspected person, b) adverse effects of quarantine and c) coping strategies. In addition, quarantine refusals; injustice in quarantine; quarantine errors; psychological distress; physiological changes; social effects; financial losses; personal and social coping strategies were the emerged sub-themes. Conclusions This study explored a range of complex experiences of quarantined people because of the COVID-19 outbreak in SNNPR. The quarantined people included in this study were adversely affected psychologically, physiologically, socially, and economically. They also experienced quarantine errors and injustice. There is a need to gather clear justification for close contact before forcing the suspect for mandatory quarantine. In addition, there is a need to develop risk communication strategy to approach suspected contacts for quarantine. Moreover, assessing psychological, physiological, social, and economic impacts of quarantine on the individuals while they are in quarantine and after release could be important. The use of personal and social coping strategies including psychosocial support may lessen the adverse impacts of the quarantine.