Early initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour after birth is essential for newborns, because it reduces risk of neonatal mortality and hypothermia to a great extent and also helps in preventing the long-term chronic diseases and in increasing energy and immunity to newborn. In order to reach the ‘very good state’ of timely or early initiation of breastfeeding recommended by WHO, Bangladesh needs to increase the current rate of 51.24 to 100%. An attempt has been made in this study to examine how the early breastfeeding practice changes among male and female children with time controlling the factors associated with this practice. Data from last four consecutive Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS) have been used in the study. The participants were included whose child born within the last 5 years preceding the surveys of 2004, 2007 and 2011, and within the last 3 years preceding the survey of 2014 in the study and the respective selected participants were 5145, 4765, 7099 and 4370. To conduct the trend analysis, the descriptive statistics of selected variables along with prevalence of early initiation of breastfeeding have been computed by different years and a multiple logistic regression model has been fitted to the pooled dataset of 2004–2014 considering survey years as time. Rate of early initiation of breastfeeding increased as time progressed and it was faster for female child compared to male child. For example, female children were significantly 10 and 6% less likely to be initiated early than their counterparts in 2004 and 2007, respectively; whereas after 2007 both male and female children were equally treated for breastfeeding practice. It was also found that rate of early initiation significantly increased for one unit increased in survey year and this increasing rate was higher for female child compared to male child. For example, for one unit of increased in survey year, the early initiation of breastfeeding increased by 60% for male child and by 67% for female child. Besides, survey time, gender, education of parents, wanted index child, mode of delivery, antenatal care visits, wealth index, exposure to media and division were found to have potential influence on early initiation of breastfeeding. Demographic and health surveys conducted in Bangladesh since 2011 have shown no evidence of gender discrimination regarding timely initiation of breastfeeding. In order to achieve the target rate of early initiation of breastfeeding recommended by WHO, it requires to take effective intervention regarding maternal and child health education.

中文翻译：

---

孟加拉国早期开始母乳喂养的性别不平等：趋势分析。

对于新生儿来说，在出生后1小时内提早开始母乳喂养至关重要，因为它在很大程度上降低了新生儿死亡和体温过低的风险，并且还有助于预防长期慢性疾病以及增加新生儿的精力和免疫力。为了达到世界卫生组织建议的及时或尽早开始母乳喂养的“良好状态”，孟加拉国需要将目前的比率从51.24提高到100％。在这项研究中，人们试图通过控制时间因素来控制男孩和女孩在早期母乳喂养方面的变化。该研究使用了来自最近四个连续的孟加拉国人口与健康调查（BDHS）的数据。参与者包括在2004年调查前的最近5年内出生的孩子，2007年和2007年，以及在2014年调查之前的最近3年中，分别选择的参与者为5145、4765、7099和4370。为进行趋势分析，对选定变量的描述性统计以及及早开始的患病率不同年份已计算出母乳喂养的时间，并考虑了调查年份作为时间，对2004-2014年合并的数据集采用了多元逻辑回归模型。随着时间的推移，早期开始母乳喂养的比例增加，而与男孩相比，女孩的母乳喂养速度更快。例如，与2004年和2007年相比，女童提早开始的可能性分别要低10％和6％。而在2007年之后，男女儿童均接受母乳喂养。还发现在调查年度中，每增加一个单位，早期发生率显着增加，并且与男孩相比，女孩的这种增加率更高。例如，在调查年度中每增加一个单位，男孩的早期开始母乳喂养增加了60％，女孩的早期增加了67％。此外，调查时间，性别，父母的教育程度，想要的要进食的孩子，分娩方式，产前检查，财富指数，接触媒体和分裂等因素也可能对早期开始母乳喂养产生潜在影响。自2011年以来在孟加拉国进行的人口和健康调查显示，没有证据表明在及时开始母乳喂养方面存在性别歧视。为了达到世界卫生组织建议的及早开始母乳喂养的目标比例，