Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess early initiation of breastfeeding and associated factors among mothers of aged less than 12 months children in the rural eastern zone, Tigray, Ethiopia.
Results: Totally 803 mother-child pairs were participated in this study with a response rate of 99.25%. Out of this, 787 mothers had ever breastfed their children. Four hundred eighty-seven (61.9%) mothers initiated breastfeeding within 1 h after they gave birth. Mothers having an educational status of primary education were about 2 times more likely to initiate breastfeeding within 1 h of birth [AOR: 1.99, 95% CI 1.36-2.92] and those mothers having secondary education and above were 3.23 times more likely to start breastfeeding [AOR = 3.23, 95% CI 1.99-5.26]. Mothers who had mistimed pregnancy were 58% less likely to initiate breastfeeding within 1 h of birth [AOR: 0.42, 95% CI 0.27-0.65]. On the other hand, mothers who had delivered their child vaginally were 4.6 times more likely to start early initiation of breast feeding [AOR: 4.59, 95% CI 1.99-10.56].
Keywords: Breastfeeding; Early initiation; Infants; Mothers; Rural eastern zone; Tigray.