| Summary |
The Good Start Study was a prospective cohort study of 665 HIV positive women who
attended routine PMTCT services. The women and infants were followed for 36 weeks
after birth with data collection during home visits every 2 weeks until 12 weeks and
then monthly until 9 months. At each scheduled visit infant feeding practices were
recorded through 24 hour and previous 3 day recall.
The study was undertaken in three sites Paarl (Western Cape), Umzimkulu (Eastern
Cape) and Umlazi (KwaZulu-Natal). Sites were selected to highlight differences in
socio-economic regions, health infra-structure, rural-urban locations, and HIV
prevalence. |
| More Details |
Summary of Key findings
- The quality of infant feeding counselling is poor with inadequate information
provided for women to make appropriate choices
- Infant feeding counselling, as currently implemented, does not prepare
women for the challenges of adhering to their infant feeding choice2.
Women face new challenges in the postpartum period and ongoing
community-based support and resources are important to sustain infant
feeding practices.
- Adherence to national feeding recommendations is low, regardless of infant
feeding choice (exclusive breastfeeding or exclusive formula feeding).
- Poor infant feeding practices, underlying health systems problems and high
maternal viral load contribute to lower overall infant HIV-free survival.
- Inappropriate infant feeding choices have important implications for infant HIVfree
survival.
Funding
South African National Department of Health, Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention South Africa, UNICEF South Africa, SIDA/NRF |
| Publication Webpage |
|
| |
|
| Keywords |
This Item is associated with the Following
Keywords: PMTCT. |
| |
|
Publications
