Timely initiation of breastfeeding and associated factors among mothers of infants age 0–6 months old in Bahir Dar City, Northwest, Ethiopia, 2017: a community based cross-sectional study

Background: Early initiation of breastfeeding, also known as early initiation, is the provision of a mothers own breast milk to her infant within one hour of birth. In Ethiopia, there is a considerable variation in the timely initiation of breastfeeding practices. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the level of timely initiation of breastfeeding and associated factors among mothers of infants less than six months old in Bahir Dar, Northwest, Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Bahir Dar City from April 15 to May 3, 2017. A total of 472 mothers of infant age less than six months were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were done to know the distribution of variables. To identify predictors logistic regression was conducted. Results: The prevalence of timely initiation of breastfeeding was 356 (75.4%). Mothers who birth by a vaginal delivery (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] 6.99; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 3.49, 14.00), mothers who gave birth at health institution (AOR 3.36; 95% CI 1.47, 7.67), and who get breastfeeding counseling during antenatal care visits (AOR 5.64; 95% CI 2.70, 11.79) were more likely to initiate breastfeeding within one hour than counterparts. Conclusions: Practice of timely initiation of breastfeeding in this study was suboptimal. Mothers who delivered at the health institution, gave birth by a vaginal delivery, and who got breastfeeding counseling during antenatal visits were the independent predictors of the timely initiation of breastfeeding practice. Encouraging all mothers to give birth in health facilities, counsel mothers to initiate breastfeeding timely at time of Caesarean sections, reduce the indication of the Caesarean procedure and providing breastfeeding counseling during antenatal care visits were recommended. Additionally, health services must establish practices that enable timely breastfeeding whenever possible, in particular, after Caesarean section and systems need to be set up to enable skin-to-skin and timely breastfeeding.