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Background One of the most cost-effective interventions to enhance child health with the potential to reach families of all economic backgrounds is breastfeeding. Despite the many benefits optimal breastfeeding has, its practice is low due to various barriers among which maternal employment is mentioned repeatedly. Accordingly, this study has explored the experience of employed mothers with regards to breastfeeding, employment, and work environment in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Methods and findings A descriptive Phenomenology strategy was employed among 17 mothers drawn from different organizations, conveniently, that offer accommodation of six months maternity leave or onsite child care center or had only three months maternity leave. Data were collected through in-depth interviews until information saturation was reached. Recorded interviews were transcribed and translated and the information obtained was then organized and coded to generate overarching themes. Two themes on facilitators and barriers, and addressing barriers were generated after analysis. Mothers recognize the importance of breastfeeding for children but returning to work at three months is expressed as a major barrier to continuous breastfeeding. Mothers who have access to supporting conditions at their workplace expressed better breastfeeding practice and better satisfaction with their job. Conclusions Providing employed mothers with a supporting environment helps them work with better stability, motivation, and satisfaction. This however requires a suitable accommodation with a focus on the different kinds of work environments of the mothers and the different risks related to each respective environment via scaling up and monitoring breastfeeding interventions and calling upon institutions to remove structural and societal barriers to breastfeeding.

Adolescent undernutrition is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Inadequate dietary intake of nutrients is the major determinants of undernutrition. However, the adequacy of dietary intake among adolescents was not sufficiently explored. The present study aims to estimate the inadequacy of nutrient intake among adolescent girls in south central Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted. We assess food and nutrient intake using repeated multiple-pass 24-h dietary recall. The study was conducted in Damot Gale district, Woliyta zone, Southern Ethiopia. Data were collected from 288 female adolescents. The majority of adolescent girls consumed cereals (96⋅9 %) and roots/tubers (75⋅3 %). However, only less than 1 % of them consumed flesh food. The mean energy, carbohydrate, protein and dietary fibre intake of the adolescent girls per day was 1452⋅7 ± 356⋅3 kcal, 305⋅6 ± 72⋅4 g, 35⋅7 ± 13⋅3 g and 18⋅6 ± 8⋅4 g, respectively. The median fat intake was 13⋅3 g (IQR 8⋅8, 19⋅8). The contribution of carbohydrate, protein and fat for the total energy was 80, 10 and 8 %, respectively. The prevalence of inadequate intake of protein was 60⋅9 %. The prevalence of inadequate intake of iron for early adolescents and late adolescents was 82 and 53 %, respectively. The prevalence of inadequate intake of folate was 83⋅9 % and zinc was 58 %. The prevalence of inadequate intake was greater than 90 % for vitamin B12, vitamin C and calcium. The present study found an alarmingly high prevalence of inadequate intake of some nutrients among adolescent girls of Damot Gale district.

Background: Vertical transmission is Human immunodeficiency virus transmission from a human immunodeficiency virus-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding. In the absence of an intervention during these times, rates of Human immunodeficiency virus transmission from mother-to-child can be between 15-45%.Objective: To assess the infant Feeding Practice of human immunodeficiency virus positive mothers and examine Human immunodeficiency virus status of their infants. Methods:A cross sectional study was done in Adama Hospital in Antiretroviral therapy clinic and prevention of Mother to child transmission of Human immune deficiency virus clinic from January 1-30, 2016 by simple random sampling technique through face-to-face interview using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. A total of 327 women who are living with Human immunodeficiency virus having infants less than 12 months who were visiting health institution during data collection time was recruited and assessed for infant feeding practice and Human immunodeficiency virus status of their infant. The collected data was entered into a computer and cleaned analyzed using statistical package for the social science Version 16. Results:Of the 327 subjects, the proportion of mothers who experienced Exclusive replacement feeding, Exclusive breast feeding and mixed feeding were 46.8%, 30.6%, 15.3%, respectively. A range of social and obstetrics factors such as mode of delivery were noted to have significant Relation with Exclusive replacement feeding practice. There was statistically significant association between mode of delivery and Exclusive breast-feeding practice using chi square test. Among those infants who were delivered from human immune deficiency virus infected mothers participated in this study, 6.1% of them were positive for Human immune deficiency virus. Conclusion:Exclusive replacement feeding and Exclusive breast feeding were common infant feeding practices and no distinct difference of Human immunodeficiency virus status of infants was observed between Exclusive breast feeding and Exclusive replacement feeding.between 15-45%. MTCT can be nearly prevented if both the mother and the child are provided with ARV drugs throughout the stages when infection could occur [1].According to the federal HIV/AIDS prevention and control office of Ethiopia, there were a total of 433,763 HIV positive females and 65,088 HIV positive children 0-14 years in 2016. When we see the regional figure, Oromia is the highest, having a total number of 111,053 female HIV positives and 9,540 women who are in need of PMTCT. when we see the level of knowledge about Maternal to child transmission of HIV (MTCT) based on the Ethiopian demographic health survey of 2016, it was found 51.7% and this result is the 3 rd least result compared to all regions of Ethiopia [2,3].

Background: Although excess iron in the body is reported to disrupt glucose homeostasis leading to beta cell damage and death such information is unavailable in the studied sites and thus we examined the association between high iron status of pregnant women and occurrence of Gestational Diabetes. Methods: A hospital based case control study was conducted from March to July 2022 among 128 pregnant women, 64 cases (pregnant women with GDM) and 64 controls (non-GDM pregnant women) in black lion specialized hospital and Gandhi memorial hospital. The data were collected through document reviews, face-to-face interviews and laboratory test were done. SPSS software version 24 was used for data processing and analysis. Binary logistic regressions were used to assess the association between the predictor variables and gestational diabetes mellitus. Result: A total of 128 of pregnant women comprising of 64 cases and 64 controls were included in the study. The mean age of respondents was 31.17±4.97 year among cases and 27.59±4.70 year among the controls. The concentration of serum ferritin were significantly higher among GDM cases (53.83±23.39 ng/ml) than controls (29.8±18.408 ng/ml). Physical activity AOR (2.68, CI: 1.031-6.96), parity AOR (3.48, CI: 1.197-10.11) and abortion AOR (3.360, CI: 1.25-8.98) were among the significant factors associated with gestational diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: The occurrence of gestational diabetic mellitus was significantly associated with the higher Serum ferritin levels, while such association was not observed with the hemoglobin level. Thus, it is time to revise the blanket iron supplementation strategy to all pregnant women to avert the odds of developing GDM.

Background : The universal benefits of breastfeeding and human milk are demonstrated by different researches but despite the advantages only 37% of children are exclusively breastfed worldwide. Women employment is one way of ensuring women's empowerment but it is also one of the commonly mentioned factors contributing for the low prevalence of breastfeeding. Hence, there needs to be a conducive work environment that accommodates maternal needs not to fall back from empowerment and to improve breastfeeding practice. There are not many studies that focus on work environment in relation with employers’ experience and their perception of breastfeeding of employed mothers. Therefore this study aims to explore employers’ experience and perception of employed mothers’ breastfeeding experience in different working environments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods : A descriptive Phenomenology strategy was employed in this study and purposive sampling technique was used to recruit study participants. Data was collected from 10 employers from private, governmental and non-governmental institutions through an in-depth interview. Thematic data analysis was performed where collected data was organized, coded and categorized into themes to give meaningful contributions to answering the research questions. Results : Understanding breastfeeding, current maternity leave, perception of breastfeeding supporting conditions and mother-friendly work environment were the themes generated after analysis. Almost all employers in this study recognized the importance of breastfeeding despite the different work environments they worked in and they also acknowledged the importance of making working environment mother-friendly for stability and motivation of employed mothers. Conclusions : Providing mothers with a friendly environment is understood as a positive thing by employers. The current maternity leave of three months has low acceptance and both onsite child care center and six-month maternity leave are believed to help in creating a mother-friendly work environment despite their pros and cons. Key words : Employer, Breastfeeding, Work environment, Mother-friendly, Employed mothers

Background: The universal importance of breastfeeding and human milk are demonstrated by different researches but despite the importance only 37% of children are exclusively breastfed worldwide. Women employment is one way of ensuring women's empowerment but it is also one of the commonly mentioned factors contributing for the low prevalence of breastfeeding. Hence, there needs to be a conducive work environment that accommodates maternal needs not to fall back from empowerment and to improve breastfeeding practice. There are not many studies that focus on work environment in relation with employers’ experience and their perception of breastfeeding of employed mothers. Therefore this study aims to explore employers’ experience and perception of employed mothers’ breastfeeding experience in different working environments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Methods: A descriptive phenomenology strategy was employed in this study and purposive sampling technique was used to recruit study participants. Data was collected from 10 employers from private, governmental and non-governmental institutions through an in-depth interview. Thematic data analysis was performed where collected data was organized, coded and categorized into themes to give meaningful contributions to answering the research questions.Results: Understanding breastfeeding, current maternity leave, perception of breastfeeding supporting conditions and mother-friendly work environment were the themes generated after analysis. Almost all employers in this study recognized the importance of breastfeeding despite the different work environments they worked in and they also acknowledged the importance of making working environment mother-friendly for stability and motivation of employed mothers.Conclusions: Providing mothers with a friendly environment is understood as a positive thing by employers. The current maternity leave of three months has low acceptance and both onsite child care center and six-month maternity leave are believed to help in creating a mother-friendly work environment despite their pros and cons.