Noninstitutional Births and Newborn Care Practices Among Adolescent Mothers in Bangladesh

Objective To describe home-based newborn care practices among adolescent mothers in Bangladesh and to identify sociodemographic, antenatal care (ANC), and delivery care factors associated with these practices. Design The 2007 Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, conducted from March 24 to August 11, 2007. Setting Selected urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. Participants A total of 580 adolescent women (aged 15-19 years) who had ever been married with noninstitutional births and having at least one child younger than 3 years of age. Methods Outcomes included complete cord care, complete thermal protection, initiation of early breastfeeding, and postnatal care within 24 hours of birth. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression methods were employed in analyzing the data. Results Only 42.8% and 5.1% newborns received complete cord care and complete thermal protection. Only 44.6% of newborns were breastfed within 1 hour of birth. The proportion of the newborns that received postnatal care within 24 hours of birth was 9%, and of them 11% received care from medically trained providers (MTP). Higher level of maternal education and richest bands of wealth were associated with complete thermal care and postnatal care within 24 hours of birth but not with complete cord care and early breastfeeding. Use of sufficient ANC and assisted births by MTP were significantly associated with several of the newborn care practices. Conclusions The association between newborn care practices of the adolescent mothers and sufficient ANC and skilled birth attendance suggest that expanding skilled birth attendance and providing ANC may be an effective strategy to promote essential and preventive newborn care.