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Does postnatal care have a role in improving newborn feeding? A study in 15 sub-Saharan African countries
Authors: Shane M Khan, Ilene S Speizer, Kavita Singh, Gustavo Angeles, Nana AY Twum–Danso, and Pierre Barker
Source: Journal of Global Health, 7(2): 020506; DOI: 10.7189/jogh.07.020506
Topic(s): Child feeding
Postnatal care
Country: Africa
  Multiple African Countries
Published: DEC 2017
Abstract: Background Breastfeeding is known as a key intervention to improve newborn health and survival while prelacteal feeds (liquids other than breastmilk within 3 days of birth) represents a departure from optimal feeding practices. Recent programmatic guidelines from the WHO and UNICEF outline the need to improve newborn feeding and points to postnatal care (PNC) as a potential mechanism to do so. This study examines if PNC and type of PNC provider are associated with key newborn feeding practices: breastfeeding within 1 day and prelacteal feeds. Methods: We use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 15 sub–Saharan African countries to estimate 4 separate pooled, multilevel, logistic regression models to predict the newborn feeding outcomes. Findings: PNC is significantly associated with increased breastfeeding within 1day (OR = 1.35, P < 0.001) but is not associated with PLFs (OR = 1.04, P = 0.195). PNC provided by nurses, midwives and untrained health workers is also associated with higher odds of breastfeeding within 1 day of birth (OR = 1.39, P < 0.001, (OR = 1.95, P < 0.001) while PNC provided by untrained health workers is associated with increased odds of PLFs (OR = 1.20, P = 0.017). Conclusions: PNC delivered through customary care may be an effective strategy to improve the breastfeeding within 1 day but not to discourage PLFs. Further analysis should be done to examine how these variables operate at the country level to produce finer programmatic insight.
Web: http://jogh.org/documents/issue201702/jogh-07-020506.pdf