Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding at Discharge and Associated Factors Among Preterm Neonates in Public Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2025-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Globally, there are about 15 million preterm babies, born before 37 weeks of
gestation. It is recommended that term babies be breastfed within the first hour.
Unfortunately, preterm infants have lower proportions of breastfeeding, especially in low
resource settings. Despite these recommendations, evidence on the determinants of this gap,
particularly in low resource settings, is lacking. The objective of this study was to explore the
factors that affect preterm infants breast milk feeding in Addis Ababa.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate exclusive breast milk feeding at discharge and the
factors influencing it among mothers of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units of
public hospitals in Addis Ababa.
Methods and Materials: Institution based cross sectional study was carried out in Addis
Ababa public hospitals. Data collection was carried out from November 15, 2024, to January
15, 2025. Data were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire through the Open
Data Kit (ODK) and later exported to Stata version 17 to be analyzed. Bivariate analysis was
carried out to identify the association of each independent variable with the exclusive breast
milk feeding at discharge. Variables with p-values < 0.2 were included in the multivariable
logistic regression model for final analysis, and those with p-value < 0.05 were considered
statistically significant.
Results: In 341 preterm neonates, exclusive breast milk feeding at discharge from NICU was
82.99%.Lower exclusive breastfeeding factors were late initiation after 48 hours (AOR =
5.19, 95% CI: 2.11–12.77), no rooming-in (AOR = 4.34, 95% CI: 1.86–10.13), Cesarean
section (AOR = 2.99, 95% CI: 1.43–6.25), and lack of prior breastfeeding experience (AOR
= 2.96, 95% CI: 1.41–6.23).
Conclusion: The rate of exclusive breastfeeding among preterm infants at NICU discharge
was favorable. However, late initiation of breastfeeding, lack of rooming-in, no prior
maternal breastfeeding experience, and cesarean section delivery were significant factors
reducing the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding.
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Keywords
Initiation, Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding, preterm, Neonatal Intensive Care