Immediate Post-delivery Infant Feeding Practices in Benin City

Abstract

A prospective and community based study which was carried out in Oredo LGA of Edo State between March and June, 1998, was predicated on the fact that immediate post-delivery breast-feeding is essential to the success of exclusive breast-feeding. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, the immediate post-delivery breast-feeding practices were assessed in 780 mothers. Mothers who had children aged less than one year were selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Immediate post-delivery breast-feeding was significantly associated with the place of delivery of the index infant (p <0.05), the facility utilized in the latest antenatal care (p <0.05), maternal age (p <0.05), maternal education (p <0.05) but not maternal religion (p >0.05) or maternal occupation (p >0.05). Only 52.4 per cent of the respondents practised immediate post-delivery breast-feeding. Improvement in this index of infant nutrition would require addressing these maternal socio-demographic parameters.

Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics 2001; 28:123. pp. 123-127