Discussion
We expected mothers who had chosen to formula feed to
fulfill AFASS criteria and hence be different from the
breastfeeding mothers in terms of socio-economic parameters; this was however not the case as there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in
terms of the parameters used to assess AFASS criteria. This
could be an indication that the infant feeding counselling
that was supplied by the antenatal clinic was sub-optimal.
A large study conducted in KwaZulu-Natal showed that
where women were well counseled the majority of women
who selected to formula feed did in fact satisfy AFASS
criteria and were different from the breastfeeding women
in terms of the AFASS criteria [35, 36]. Appropriate
selection of feeding choice is very important in terms of
HIV transmission as shown by Doherty et al. [37] in their
prospective cohort study at three sites in South Africa.