A Cross Sectional Study on Assessing the Relationship Between Prenatal Complications and Delay in Breast Feeding in New Born Babies

The Baby friendly hospital initiative was launched in the year 1991 -1992, by World Health Organization and UNICEF, in around 156 countries throughout the world with a goal to ensure initiation of breast feeding in all infant before their discharge from the hospital. The hospitals which implemented Ten recommendations for successful breast feeding were designed as Baby Friendly Hospitals. By strengthening of this as initiative in the community, a better child survival can be achieved. A revised and expanded version of baby friendly hospital initiative was implemented by WHO and UNICEF in the year 2009. This study is carried out to estimate the prevalence of early initiation of breast feeding, the reasons for its delay in hospitals in and around Chennai. The age distribution among the study population was ranged between 18 to 40 years. The mean age was 24.6 years. Out of 450 mothers 84.2% of mothers were between 21 – 30 years, 11.1% of mothers were less than 20 years and 4.7% of mothers were more than 30 years. This study shows that there is a significant association between mode of delivery and initiation of breast feeding. The prevalence of early initiation of breast feeding among normal deliveries and caesarean deliveries was 71.3% and 41.5% respectively. This study was supported by the study done by Ashmika Motee et al (2013) which reveals that 42.6% of normally delivered mothers and 23.9% of caesarean delivered mothers had initiated breast feeding within one hour. For caesarean delivered mothers, management of pain along with support of family members and health care providers, helps in early initiation of breast feeding.