Does maternal autonomy influence feeding practices and infant growth in rural India?

نویسندگان

  • Monal R Shroff
  • Paula L Griffiths
  • Chirayath Suchindran
  • Balakrishna Nagalla
  • Shahnaz Vazir
  • Margaret E Bentley
چکیده

The high prevalence of child under-nutrition remains a profound challenge in the developing world. Maternal autonomy was examined as a determinant of breast feeding and infant growth in children 3-5 months of age. Cross-sectional baseline data on 600 mother-infant pairs were collected in 60 villages in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. The mothers were enrolled in a longitudinal randomized behavioral intervention trial. In addition to anthropometric and demographic measures, an autonomy questionnaire was administered to measure different dimensions of autonomy (e.g. decision-making, freedom of movement, financial autonomy, and acceptance of domestic violence). We conducted confirmatory factor analysis on maternal autonomy items and regression analyses on infant breast feeding and growth after adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic variables, and accounting for infant birth weight, infant morbidity, and maternal nutritional status. Results indicated that mothers with higher financial autonomy were more likely to breastfeed 3-5 month old infants. Mothers with higher participation in decision-making in households had infants that were less underweight and less wasted. These results suggest that improving maternal financial and decision-making autonomy could have a positive impact on infant feeding and growth outcomes.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

The influence of maternal psychosocial circumstances and physical environment on the risk of severe wasting in rural Gambian infants: a mixed methods approach

BACKGROUND Severe wasting affects 16 million under 5's and carries an immediate risk of death. Prevalence remains unacceptably high in sub-Saharan Africa and early infancy is a high-risk period. We aimed to explore risk factors for severe wasting in rural Gambian infants. METHODS We undertook a case-control study from November 2014 to June 2015, in rural Gambia. Cases had WHO standard weight-...

متن کامل

Autonomy and infant feeding decision-making among teenage mothers in a rural and urban setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

BACKGROUND The nutritional status of infants born to teenage mothers can be sub-optimal compared to those born to older mothers. One contributing factor is inappropriate feeding practices adopted by teenage mothers. Little is known about how infant feeding decisions are made among teenage mothers, particularly in under resourced settings. In this study we prospectively explored autonomy and inf...

متن کامل

Study of Maternal Knowledge and Attitude toward Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding (BMF) in the First 6 Months of Infant in Yazd-Iran

Introduction: Breast milk is a complete food for growing children until 6 months of age, and mothers, as the most important child health care, play a decisive role in their growth. So promoting  their attitude toward the benefits of breastfeeding ensures guarantee child health in the future. This study aimed to assess maternal knowledge and attitude of Mashhad toward exclusive Breast Milk Feedi...

متن کامل

Household food security is associated with infant feeding practices in rural Bangladesh.

Although household food security (HHFS) has been shown to affect diet, nutrition, and health of adults and also learning in children, no study has examined associations with infant feeding practices (IFP). We studied 1343 infants born between May 2002 and December 2003 in the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab study to investigate the effect of HHFS on IFP in rural Bangladesh....

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Social science & medicine

دوره 73 3  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2011