Early Initiation of Breastfeeding Among Postnatal Mothers at Kafue General Hospital, Kafue Distict, Zambia

Introduction: Initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth can decrease neonatal mortality and contributes to neonates’ health and survival. Despite this knowledge early initiation of breastfeeding practice is approximately 50% in most developing countries, especially in low-income settings where infants could benefit from this feeding practice. Promotion of early initiation of breastfeeding is a single most cost-effective intervention to reduce neonatal mortality in developing countries.  Aim/Objective: Investigate factors associated with initiation of breastfeeding at Kafue general hospital.  Methodology: This study used a cross- sectional study design and data were collected from 305 postnatal mothers who delivered at Kafue general hospital with infants of 0- 6 weeks old. A rotary sampling technique using an adapted questionnaire to select the respondents and data was analysed using stata version 14.  Results The findings from this study indicate that early initiation of breastfeeding is still low among postnatal mothers and stands at 65.12% at Kafue general hospital. Chi squire tests and multivariable binary logistic regression showed that there was no association between early initiation of breastfeeding and socio- demographic, culture and traditions as well as maternal factors which gave p- values greater than 0.005, but was strongly associated to newborn and service-related factors with p- values of 0.001.  Conclusion: The main reason of delaying breastfeeding was nursing newborns in cot beds and delivery through caesarean section. The findings demands that policy; implementation strategies should put more efforts on newborn and service-related factors in order to reduce the risk of delaying breastfeeding.