Breastfeeding Practices of Women with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

To identify sociodemographic factors that could enhance breastfeeding uptake among women with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

This was a secondary analysis from a retrospective cohort study using the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) on women and HIV data from 14 sub-Saharan African countries during the period from 2010 to 2018. Our study sample encompassed women aged 15 to 49 years with HIV, with childbearing history within the 3 to 5 years preceding the survey, living in any of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa for whom breastfeeding information was available. We used an adjusted survey log binomial regression model to examine factors associated with breastfeeding among participants.

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Breastfeeding women with HIV from 15 sub-Saharan African countries.

Of 138,920 women with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, 49,479 (35.6%) breastfed their infants. Young women, aged 15 to 19 years (90.5%, n = 2,422) were more likely to breastfeed than those aged 25 to 29 years (13.7%, n = 5,266). Breastfeeding was more common among women who lived in rural areas (38.1%, n = 26,000) than among those in urban areas (33.2%, n = 23,479) (p < .01). The wealthiest women (43.3%, n = 13,710) breastfed more than those with the lowest economic resources (30.8%, n = 4,750) (p < .01).

Recognizing the breastfeeding issues in this individualized sub-Saharan population of women with HIV can influence the creation of more accessibility to education, resources, supplies, counseling, and support throughout the region and beyond through policy changes in health care.