title: Effect of early mother-baby close contact over the duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
abstract: This is a prospective study involving ninety-two lactating mother- infant pairs in the first six months of birth. They were followed-up up to six months for various perinatal factors determining the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Early postpartum mother-baby skin-to-skin contact had a powerful influence (P<0.001) over the duration of exclusive breastfeeding up to 4-6 months and was found to be more significant than early initiation of breastfeeding (P<0.05). Mode of delivery did not have any significant effect (P<0.5) over the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Thus health care centers can easily adopt a policy to allow few minutes of early postpartum mother-baby skin-to-skin contact and early initiation of breastfeeding to all vaginal as well as caesarian deliveries to promote breastfeeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Nepal Medical College, Jorpati, Kathmandu.
authors.forename: Kamala
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vaidya
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dhungel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors