Infant care practices in a metropolitan Aboriginal population

Objective: To describe sleeping position, room and bed-sharing, tobacco smo ke exposure and infant feeding for a sample of Australian Aboriginal infant s from a metropolitan area. Methods: Interviews with Aboriginal mothers who resided in the Perth metrop olitan area and had given birth during a continuous 15-month study period. The interviews took place when the infants were approximately 6-12 weeks ol d and efforts were made to contact all eligible mothers. Results are presen ted as proportions with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Of all the eligible mothers (n=515), 87% were contacted and 53% (n =273) completed the interview. Of all the infants, 11% slept prone, 96% sha red a room and 68% shared a bed; 65% of mothers smoked during pregnancy and 65% were smokers at the time of interview; 66% of the partners were smoker s and 80% of the infants were regularly exposed to tobacco smoke; 89% of mo thers initiated breast-feeding and 70% were breast-feeding at time of inter view. Conclusion: Prevalences of non-prone sleeping and breast-feeding are simila r to the overall Western Australian population, whilst tobacco smoke exposu re of the infants is markedly higher. Programs of community and family educ ation and support are required urgently to decrease this exposure.