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Coverage and determinants of newborn feeding practices in rural Burkina Faso

Journal of Perinatology volume 34, pages 369–374 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objective:

Newborn feeding practices are important to neonatal health and survival, but understudied in sub-Saharan Africa. We assessed the prevalence and determinants of newborn feeding practices in Burkina Faso.

Study design:

An 18 000 household survey was conducted in rural Burkina Faso in 2010 to 2011. Women of reproductive age were asked about antenatal, delivery and newborn care practices for their most recent live birth. Coverage of newborn feeding practices was estimated and multivariate regression was used to assess determinants of these practices.

Result:

Seventy-six percent of live births were breastfed within 24 h of birth, 84% were given colostrum and 21% received prelacteals. Facility delivery and antenatal care attendance were associated with positive feeding practices.

Conclusion:

Positive newborn feeding practices were common in rural Burkina Faso, relative to other low-income settings. Interventions are needed to improve feeding practices among home-born babies, and to encourage earlier initiation of breastfeeding among facility-born newborns.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a contract to the World Health Organization to support the independent evaluation of the MNCH Rapid Scale-Up in Burkina Faso; by UNICEF-New York; UNICEF-Burkina Faso; and by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF through the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) project. MKM received dissertation support for this study from the National Institutes of Health Training Grant in Maternal and Child Health and from the Sommer Scholars Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    M K Munos, L C Mullany & J Bryce

  2. Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population, Université de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    A Maïga & B Baya

  3. Université catholique de Louvain, Centre de Recherche en Demographie et Societés, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    A Maïga

  4. Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    B Baya

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  1. M K Munos
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  2. L C Mullany
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  3. A Maïga
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  4. B Baya
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  5. J Bryce
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Correspondence to M K Munos.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Perinatology website

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Munos, M., Mullany, L., Maïga, A. et al. Coverage and determinants of newborn feeding practices in rural Burkina Faso. J Perinatol 34, 369–374 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2014.13

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