Abstract:
Skin-to-skin contact care practice is placing a naked baby on the mother’s chest with no
cloth separating them, in a prone position covered by a cloth or blanket. It improves the survival
of newborns by preventing hypothermia, improving breastfeeding, and strengthening
mother-to-child bonding. Nevertheless, it remains under-practiced in many resource-constrained
settings. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the spatial variation
and determinants of mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact care practices in
Ethiopia.
Method
The study was done using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data. A
weighted sample of 10417 mothers who gave live birth before the five-year survey was
extracted for the analysis. Arc GIS version 10.3 and SaTscan version 10.0.2 were used for
the spatial analysis. A multilevel mixed logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors
associated with skin-to-skin contact care practices of mothers and newborns. Finally, a statistically
significant association was declared at a P-value of < 0.05.
Result
In this study, skin-to-skin contact care practice of mothers and newborns was non-random
across Ethiopia with Moran’s I: 0.48, p < 0.001. The most likely significant primary and secondary clusters were found in Addis Ababa (RR = 2.39, LLR = 116.80, p <0.001) and Dire Dewa and Harari (RR = 2.02, LLR = 110.45, p <0.001), respectively. In this study, place ofdelivery (AOR = 12.29, 95%CI:10.41, 14.54), rich wealth index (AOR = 1.29, 95% CI:
1.05,1.59), medium wealth index (AOR = 1.38, 95% CI:1.17, 1.68), having 1–3 antenatal
care visits(AOR = 1.86,95% CI: 1.56, 2.29), having �4 antenatal care visits (AOR =
1.93,95% CI: 1.56, 2.39), initiating breastfeeding within the first hour (AOR = 1.75,95% CI:1.49,2.05) and media exposure (AOR = 1.20,95%CI 1.02,1.41) were factors associated
with skin to skin contact care practice of mothers and newborns.
Conclusion
This study concludes that the Skin-to-skin contact care practices of mother and newborn is
not random in Ethiopia. Therefore, the implementation of essential newborn care packages
should be regularly monitored and evaluated, particularly in the cold spot areas of skin-toskincontact care practices. Besides, media advertising regarding the importance of Skin-toskincontact care practices for mothers and newborns should be scaled up to increase the
practices.
