Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding the newborn is a very important step that every mother to be should consider. The benefits of breastfeeding the newborn are many. Mother’s milk has more nutrients compare to formula based on cow’s milk. The first fluid that comes from the mother breast is name colostrum. Colostrum is a thick, high calorie fluid that would nourish the newborn (Berger, 2016). One of the benefits of human milk is that it’s always at body temperature. If the baby is breastfeed would tend to get less sick. The bonding between mother and baby would help the child become secure. Overall, planning to breastfeed the baby would benefit the baby to have a healthy childhood. I applaud those mothers that determined to breastfeed their babies. It takes time and effort to sit and breastfeed their baby. I am sharing this study done in Mesoamerica which includes Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador. The results show that 97% of women in all country breastfed their child once. Breastfeeding Practices among Poor Women in Mesoamerica +Author Affiliations 1. 4Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA; and 2. 5Salud Mesoamérica 2015, Inter-American Development Bank, Panama City, Panama 3. ↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dvc2@uw.edu. Abstract Background: Breastfeeding is an effective intervention to reduce pediatric morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of practices and predictors of breastfeeding among the poor in Mesoamerica has not been well described. Objectives: We estimated the prevalence of ever breastfeeding, early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and breastfeeding between 6 mo and 2 y of age using household survey data for the poorest quintile of families living in 6 Mesoamerican countries. We also assessed the predictors of breastfeeding behaviors to identify factors amenable to policy interventions. Methods: We analyzed data from 12,529 children in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (Chiapas State), Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador using baseline survey data from the Salud Mesoamérica 2015 Initiative. We created multivariable Poisson regression models with robust variance estimates to calculate adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) and 95% CIs for breastfeeding outcomes and to control for sociodemographic and healthcare-related factors. Results: Approximately 97% of women in all countries breastfed their child at least once, and 65.1% (Nicaragua) to 79.0% (Panama) continued to do so between 6 mo and 2 y of age. Breastfeeding in the first hour of life varied by country (P < 0.001), with the highest proportion reported in Panama (89.8%) and the lowest in El Salvador (65.6%). Exclusive breastfeeding also varied by country (P = 0.037), ranging from 44.5% in Panama to 76.8% in Guatemala. For every 20% increase in the proportion of peers who exclusively breastfed, there was an 11% (aRR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.18) increase in the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusion: Our study revealed significant variation in the prevalence of breastfeeding practices by poor women across countries surveyed by the Salud Mesoamérica 2015 initiative. Future interventions to promote exclusive breastfeeding should consider ways to leverage the role of the community in supporting individual women.