Publication:

The first golden hour of breastfeeding: where do we stand?

Background Breastfeeding is the corner stone of child survival, nutrition and development and maternal health. The World Health Organization recommends that all neonates be breastfed within one hour of birth. Early initiation of breast feeding (EIBF) is a sentinel indicator for successful breastfeeding. The aim of this study is to assess the practice of early initiation of breastfeeding among babies delivered in our tertiary care teaching unit and to list out the reasons for delay in implementation.

Methods This study is done on 409 postnatal mothers who delivered in our hospital. All the mother-baby dyads enrolled were interviewed within 12 hours of delivery. Data was collected through clinical records and interview of mothers.

Results EIBF is seen only in 19.8% of babies. Median time of initiation of breast feed is 110 minutes. Primiparous mothers had a delay in initiation of feed (p 90%.