Breast feeding pattern in rural Egypt

ABSTRACT

This work was carried out to study the breast feeding pattern of all women with births during the year 1982 [248 women] in two small rural village in Sharkia governorate, Egypt. The mean age was 27 +/- 7 years, party 4.36 +/- 2.6, family size was 6 +/- 2.2 persons and 67.7% were illiterate. 98.5% and cases initially breast-fed their babies for a mean period of 10.55 +/- 4 months. Nursing was started after the 3rd post-partum day by 76.4% of cases and 95.1% of infants were on demand 2.5 times/day and ranged for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from each breast. Mean age of infants at first supplement was 6.69 +/- 2.17 months and the mean duration of postpartum amenorrhoea was 7.96 +/- 4.61 months. The interpregnancy space was 18.93 +/- 4.5 months and menstruation resumption showed a significant linear correlation to the duration of lactation and to the age of infants at first supplementation [P < 0.01]. The reasons mentioned as a cause for discontinuation of feeding and the difficulties experienced during lactation are also mentioned