Setegn et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:217 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/217 co-operation was also obtained from Oromia Health Bureau, Zonal Health Desk & Woreda Health Office. Informed verbal consent was secured from study partici- pants in their own language explaining the purpose of the study, potential risk and benefits of partaking in the study and the right to with draw from the study any time. The participants were also assured about the con- fidentiality of the data. Results Out of 668 mother-infant pairs sampled, 608 were included in the analysis making the response rate 91.01%. The mean (± SD) age of mothers was 26.5 (± 5.5) years. Thirty six percent of mothers were in the age group of 25-29 years. Sixty nine percent of respondents were Muslims by religion. The largest ethnic group was Oromo 542 (89.1%) followed by Amhara 60(9.9%). Con- cerning the educational status of mothers, 371(61.0%) had attended formal school of which 275(45.2%) com- pleted primary school (grade1-8). Sixteen percent of the study subjects completed secondary school (9th grade and above). Majority of the mothers were married 579 (95.7%) and house wife by occupation 498(82.3%). Four hundred eighty-eight (80.3%) of the study participants resides in rural area (Table 1). Ninety nine percent of mothers had breastfeed at least once in their life time among which, 210(35.0%) of them squeezed out and discarded the colostrums and 104 (17.2%) of mothers gave pre-lacteal food to their infants. In support of the idea of discarding colostrums, a 26 yrs old mother said ’’... here in our communities, it is believed that colostrums(silga in Afan Oromo language) is not considered as a white milk, this might make the infant ill; therefore I discarded it out.”On the same issue a health extension worker from Aloshe kebele stated “... mothers refused to give the first breast milk which they throw away because it may cause abdominal cramp“. With regard to the reason for pre lacteal feeding a 29 years old rural mother of said “...my infant’s stomach cannot digest my breast milk; therefore I gave ‘lega kibe’- meaning fresh butter to soften his stomach for the first two to three days.” Among mothers who had ever breastfed, more than half 314(52.4%) of them initiated breastfeeding within one hour after delivery and 191(31.7%) initiated breast- feeding within the period of 1 hour to 1 day. Eleven per- cent of the mothers initiated breastfeeding after three days (Figure 1). Regarding timely initiation of breast- feeding, a mother with 20 days infant from Aloshe kebele made the following remark, “...As usual most mothers initiate breastfeeding after one and half hour. I initiated breastfeeding after one hour because I had abdominal cramp.” Similarly, a health extension worker from the same kebele indicated; Table 1 Socio-demographic and economic characteristics of breastfeeding mothers in Goba woreda, Bale Zone, South East Ethiopia Socio-demographic variables Age of mothers (years) Religion Ethnicity Educational status of mothers Marital status Occupation of mothers Place of residence Sex of infant Age of infants 43 173 219 173 422 186 542 60 6 139 Category 15-19 20-24 25-29 30+ Muslim Christian Oromo Amhara Other* Illiterate Able to read/Write 98 Primary(1-8) 275 Secondary and above 96 (9+) Married 579 Never married 10 Other† 11 House wife 498 Farmer 42 Business Woman** 25 Student 15 Employed 13 Other♠ 15 Urban 120 Rural 488 Male 318 Female 290 < 6 months 283 > 6 months 321 Page 3 of 7 Number Percent 7.1 28.5 36.0 28.5 69.4 30.6 89.1 9.9 1.0 22.9 16.1 45.2 15.8 95.7 1.7 1.8 81.9 6.9 4.1 2.5 2.1 2.5 19.7 80.3 52.3 47.7 46.9 53.1 *Tigre, Gurage †Widowed, divorced, separated ♠ Daily laborer, house servants **A woman who is involved in some form of merchant or trade. “...Even if mothers initiated breastfeeding after one hour of delivery, most mothers who deliver in hospital do not breastfeed till they come to our health post which may take about three hours to walk”. 60 50 t 40 n rec30 e P20 10 0 52.4 31.7 4.5 11.4 <=1hr >1hr-1day >1day-3days >3days Time breastfeeding was innitiated after delivery Figure 1 Distribution of mothers by the time at which they initiated breastfeeding in Goba Woreda, South East Ethiopia.