Mekonnen, Bazie (PhD)Berhe, Hailemariam2018-07-092023-11-062018-07-092023-11-062011-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/7387Background- Breastfeeding and good nutrition for children are essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goals relating to child survival. Even though most mothers in Ethiopia breastfeed their babies, they do not always follow the recommendations of the "National Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding,". Mothers do not initiate breastfeeding within one hour after delivery, majority of them provide pre-lacteal feed and they do not exclusively breast feed to six months. Although the implementation of the national infant and young child feeding guideline has been in place since 2004, there is limited study which evaluated breastfeeding practices in the study area in this regard. Objective- The aim of this study was to assess determinants of breast feeding practice among mothers’ of children aged less than 24 months attending governmental maternal and child health clinics in Mekelle town. Methods- Institution based cross sectional study was carried out among five health facilities selected using simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by interviewer administered structured questionnaire and it was entered, cleaned and analyzed by using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Proportion was used to describe the results and it was presented in the form of figures, tables and texts. Binary logistic regression model was used to test association between dependent and independent variables. Result- A total of 361 mothers with their index child were interviewed. The ever breastfeeding rate in this study was 98.9%. The timely initiation rate of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were 77.9% and 60.8%, respectively. Eighty five percent of mothers reported on demand breastfeeding. The continued breast feeding rate at one year and at two years was 95.7% and 65.6% respectively. Home delivery (AOR=3.7[95%CI= 1.81, 9.33]), Vaginal delivery (AOR=14.4[95%CI=4.8, 43.7]) and non health professional as a birth attendant (AOR=3.5[95%CI=1.21, 8.53]) were found to be positively statistically associated with timely initiation of breastfeeding (P<0.05). Employment status (AOR=4.81(95%CI=2.27, 10.16]) and Child’s age (AOR=3.42[95%CI1.36, 8.59]) were associated with exclusive breastfeeding practice for the first 6 months. Conclusion and recommendation-: A range of characteristics affect the practice of timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding such as socio-demographic, obstetric and health service related practices/factors. Coordination, strengthening and sustaining of the existing strategies, and approaches for further improvement of optimal breastfeeding practice is recommended Key words: Timely initiation, exclusive breastfeedingenTimely InitiationExclusive breastfeedingThesis