Latency period and early initiation of breastfeeding in term premature rupture of membrane in Southern Ethiopia, 2017.

Background: World Health Organization recommended timely initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of delivery. Less than half of newborn babies (43%) receive the benefits of immediate breastfeeding in the world. In East Africa and Ethiopia, the prevalence of early initiation of breastfeeding was 61.82 and 73%, respectively. But, the prevalence of early initiation of breastfeeding was not assessed in relation to the duration of term premature rupture of the membrane in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of the latency period of term premature rupture of the membrane on early initiation of breastfeeding in Southern Ethiopia, 2017.

Methods: The study was conducted in Southern Ethiopia public hospitals by using facility based prospective follow up study from 20th February to 20th August 2017. Then, based on the duration of latency period of term premature rupture of the membrane, 98 and 294 mothers with prolonged and short latency period were followed until the initiation of breastfeeding respectively. Logistic regression analysis was performed to see the association between predictor and outcome variables. Adjusted odds ratio, with 95% CI, was calculated for each independent variable to check the adjusted association between independent variables and dependent variable. The statistical significance was set at P < =0.05.

Results: From a total of 91 mothers with prolonged latency period of premature rupture of membrane, 66.0% of them initiated breastfeeding after 1 h of birth. One the other hand, from 289 women with short latency period, 65.7% of them initiated breastfeeding within 1 h of delivery. The odds of initiation of breastfeeding within 1 h of delivery was higher in mothers with a short latency period of term premature rupture of membrane as compared to a prolonged latency period (AOR = 4.169: 95% CI; [1.933, 8.991]). Other variables such as educational status, wealth index, and place of residence were also independent predictors of initiation of breastfeeding.

Conclusion: This study pointed out that women with short latency period of premature rupture of the membrane were more likely to initiate breastfeeding within an hour of delivery than women with prolonged latency period. Therefore, this finding suggested that women with prolonged premature rupture of membrane need special attention to increase early initiation breastfeeding.