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. 2023 Jan 31;9(1):22.
doi: 10.1186/s40795-023-00681-5.

Early cessation of breastfeeding and the associated factors among mothers with children aged 2 to 3 years in rural Southern Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study

Kidus Temesgen  1 , Eshetu Andarge  2   3 , Teshale Fikadu  2   4 , Muluken Bekele  2 , Yilma Chisha  2 , Habtamu Esubalew  2 , Temesgen Mohammed Toma  5
Affiliations

Early cessation of breastfeeding and the associated factors among mothers with children aged 2 to 3 years in rural Southern Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study

Kidus Temesgen et al. BMC Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: Breast milk is the first natural food for babies. It has nutritional, immunological, developmental, psychological, societal and environmental advantages. Failing to feed children for twenty-four months has so many negative consequences to children. Though studies have well documented the duration of breast feeding in the first six months, the proportion of women completing the recommended duration and factors associated with it has not been well investigated in rural places of Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap in evidence among mothers with children aged 2 to 3 years in Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site in 2021 E.C.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in all kebeles of the surveillance site by employing multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics was done to summarize findings and binary logistics regression model was used to identify factors significantly associated with early breast-feeding cessation respectively. OR with its 95% CI was obtained to quantify the degree of association between explanatory variables and early breastfeeding cessation.

Result: The proportion of early cessations of breast feeding was 29.30% (25.02, 33.64%). Being from a household with no fathers 'education or primary education [AOR=0.22; 95%CI (0.07, 0.74)] and [AOR=0.30; 95%CI (0.12, 0.76)], farmer mothers [AOR=6.40; 95%CI: (1.38, 29.74)], birth interval of less than 2 years [AOR=2.07; 95%CI: (1.03, 4.16)], and with mothers' one or two to three antenatal care visits [AOR = 2.73; 95%CI: (1.27,5.88)] were factors significantly associated with early cessations of breast feeding.

Conclusion and recommendation: The proportion of early cessations of breast feeding was high. Father's education, being farmer, birth interval and ante natal care visit were significant factors. Health education about proper breast feeding practice and improving ante natal care attendance might improve premature cessation of breast feeding among women.

Keywords: ANC; AOR; Arba Minch; Cessation of breast feeding; Children; Logistic regression; Southern Ethiopia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Early cessation of breast feeding of participants in Arba Minch HDSS 2022
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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