Details:

Alternative Title:
J Hum Lact
Personal Author:
Mirkovic, Kelsey R. ; Perrine, Cria G. ; Scanlon, Kelley S. ; Grummer-Strawn, Laurence M.
Mirkovic, Kelsey R. ; Perrine, Cria G. ; Scanlon, Kelley S. ; Grummer-Strawn, Laurence M. Less -
Description:
Background

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, however only 16% of US infants meet this recommendation. Shorter exclusive/predominant breastfeeding durations have been observed from women who return to work early and/or full-time.

Objectives

We assessed the relationship between prenatal plans for maternity leave duration and return to full-time/part-time status and plans for exclusive breastfeeding.

Methods

This study included 2348 prenatally employed women from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II (2005 - 2007), who planned to return to work in the first year postpartum. Bivariate analysis and logistic regression were used to describe the association of maternity leave duration and return status with plans for infant feeding.

Results

Overall, 59.5% of mothers planned to exclusively breastfeed in the first few weeks. Mothers planning to return to work within 6 weeks had 0.60 times the odds (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.46 - 0.77) and mothers planning to return between 7 and 12 weeks had 0.72 times the odds (95% CI: 0.56 - 0.92) of planning to exclusively breastfeed compared with mothers who were planning to return after 12 weeks. Prenatal plans to return full-time (≥30 hours/week; vs part-time) was also associated with lower odds of planning to exclusively breastfeed (adjusted odds ratio = 0.61, CI: 0.51 - 0.77).

Conclusions

Mothers planning to return to work before 12 weeks and/or full-time were less likely to plan to exclusively breastfeed. Longer maternity leave and/or part-time return schedules may increase the proportion of mothers who plan to exclusively breastfeed.


Keywords:
[+]
Breastfeeding Breastfeeding Intentions Employment Maternity Leave Work Status
Source:
J Hum Lact. 30(3):292-297
Pubmed ID:
24868017
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4594170
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d165585ae158a23ce3053d1af234e64da147901f716860ddff8723d71dd3909e
Download URL:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/34828/cdc_34828_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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