Breastfeeding practices after caesarean section (C-section) at the Essos Hospital Center

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding is the gold standard for infant feeding; combined with early breastfeeding, it becomes very beneficial for the child and his mother. However, caesarean section can affect its practice. Objective: To evaluate breastfeeding practices after caesarean section in the maternity ward of the Essos Hospital Center. Material and methods: Our retrospective and analytical cross-sectional study went from January 2020 to July 2020. Included in our sample were women who gave live-births by caesarean section at the Essos Hospital Center, whose children were alive. Interviews used a pre-established and pre-tested questionnaire, Data were collected using CSPro software version 7.3.1. The odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval was used to assess the association between the different variables. Any difference was considered statistically significant when the p-value <0.05. Results: We recruited 70 caesarized women, all the mother-child pairs had been separated, and none of the mothers had breastfed early. Furthermore, 42.9% of lactating women had given the breast between 1 and 24 hours after birth, and 52.9% twenty-four hours later. A statistically significant association existed between the duration of separation and the delay in breastfeeding initiation (duration of separation 24h (OR= 0.07; IC= 0.00-0.42; p=0.016); 48h (OR=0, 02; CI=0.00=0.18; p=0.002); 48h-72h (OR=0.03; CI=0.00-0.28; p=0.007)). Conclusion: In this population, caesarean section and mother-child separation played a major negative role by delaying the initiation of breastfeeding.