Abstract:
Background: Colostrum is, yellowish, sticky breast milk produced in late pregnancy. Worldwide annually 60% of 10.9 million under- five deaths is due to malnutrition and over twothird of the death is due to suboptimal feeding practice like colostrums discarding, occurred in the first year of life. Colostrum avoidance is commonly practiced in different parts of Ethiopia; the factors were not well studied in the country particularly in Gozamen district. Objective: To assess the prevalence of colostrum avoidance and associated factors among mothers who gave birth in the last six months in Gozamen district, East Gojjam zone, North West Ethiopia, 2019 Methods: A community -based cross-sectional study was conducted among seven hundred forty-one (741) mothers who gave birth in the last six months in Gozamen district from August 1 to September 12 /2019. Stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were collected by face to face interviewer-administered, pretested and semistructured questionnaires. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression model were fitted. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used to identify factors associated with colostrum avoidance. Results: This study showed that the prevalence of colostrum avoidance was 22.1% (95%CI , 19,25.2%). Mothers who did not get counseling on timely initiation of breast feeding (AOR=3.91[95% CI; 1.98,7.72]),no participation in pregnant woman forum (AOR=2.59[95% CI; 1.30,5.14) ,institutional delivery (AOR; 0.06[95%CI; 0.02, 0.19]),mothers who did not give prelacteal feeding (AOR; 0.10[ 95%CI; 0.05, 0.21]), breast-feeding initiation more than one hour (AOR 2.27[95% CI; 1.18, 4.34]) and having unfavorable attitude (AOR=7.35[95%CI; 3.89, 13.91) were statistically associated factors with colostrum avoidance. Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed that colostrum avoidance was high. Therefore, in order to reduce this practice strengthening infant feeding counseling, promoting instuitional delivery, timely initiation of breastfeeding, health education and community advocating are recommended interventions.
