Relationship between postpartumdepression and infant feeding practice in kilte Awlaelo health and demographic surveillance site,eastern zone of Tigray, Ethiopia:2019.
Creators: name: Weldu, Angesom
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2019

description: Background: Optimal infant and young child feeding practices is a cornerstone of care for childhood physical and mental development and the most effective intervention to reduce infant morbidity and mortality. Infant feeding practice can be compromised by postpartum maternal mental health condition. Postpartum depression is a non-psychotic maternal mental disorder that occurs within one year of child birth. The aim of this study is to assess whether there is any difference in infant feeding practice among postpartum depressed and non-depressed mothers, the finding of which may help to design appropriate evidence based public health intervention. Objectives: To assess the association between postpartum depression and infant feeding practice in eastern zone of Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018/19. Methods: comparative cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the influence of postpartum depression on infant feeding practices among randomly selected 525 postpartum women and infants who resides in Kilite Awlaelo Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, northeast Tigray. Postpartum depression was assessed using self-reporting questionnaire-20 which was developed by World Health Organization and infant feeding practices was measured using modified questionnaire from United State Agency for International Development toolkit for monitoring and evaluation of breastfeeding practice based on 24hr recall and recall since birth method. A binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the associations between postpartum depression and infant feeding practice by controlling potential confounders. Finally, variables with p-value ≤ 0.25 at bivariate analysis were included in the final model of multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: Complete data from a total of 513 mothers was retrieved giving a response rate of 97.7%. The overall exclusive breast feeding rate was 160/293 54.6% (95% CI; 48.9%– 60.3%).The overall of prevalence of appropriate complementary feeding practices was 14.1% (9.4%-18.6%).The overall odd of appropriate infant feeding was 1.7 times higher among mothers without postpartum depression (AOR= 1.71; 95% CI: 1.08-2.69). The odds of appropriate infant feeding among infants with birth order above three was 48% (AOR= 0.52; 95% CI: 0.28-0.97) less than those infants with birth order of three and below. Conclusion: low appropriate infant feeding practice was observed. Postpartum depression is an important contributor to appropriate infant feeding practice. Households with high monthly incomes and birth order above three were significantly associated with appropriate infant feeding practice. Recommendation: Based on the results of this study, routine screening of postnatal mothers and formulation of policies for integrating of postpartum depression into maternal and child health could mitigate the consequences of child undernutrition that could results from poor maternal mental health conditions.