Abstract
Background: Breastfeeding is the gold standard of infant feeding due to the many advantages it offers to both the child and the mother. Objective: To identity the main reasons for cessation of breastfeeding reported by mothers during the first year of life. Design: A prospective cohort study was conducted, recruiting 970 infants from a university hospital in Spain. The main maternal variables studied were maternal age, parity, educational level, work occupation, smoking habit, weeks of gestation at birth, birth weight, feeding type, and duration of breastfeeding. All participants were followed for one year to determinate the duration of breastfeeding and to gather reasons for abandoning breastfeeding. Results: At six months, the percentage of breastfeeding experienced a decline of 50%, and only 24.5% of these mothers maintained breastfeeding. Up to 15.8% of the mothers decided to give up exclusive breastfeeding by their own choice, whereas 15.4% did so because they suspected low milk production. Work-related causes represent the third reason of abandonment. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need to improve the health policies for the promotion, protection, and support for the initiation and maintenance of breastfeeding. In particular, our results highlight the importance of researching women’s low milk production and work-related factors, with particular emphasis on improving conciliation measures.
Highlights
We found that 12.5% of postpartum women were smokers, with a mean consumption of 7.2 cigarettes/day
At six months, only 24.6% of women maintain exclusive breastfeeding. These findings are in line with the ELOIN study carried out in Madrid, where the exclusive breastfeeding rate was 25.4% [27]
Our results show the need to improve health policies for the promotion, protection, and support for the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding
Summary
Breastfeeding is the gold standard for infant feeding due to the many advantages that it offers to both the infant and the mother [1,2,3,4]. This is reflected in the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health (2004). Non-Communicable Diseases (2008) adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) These strategies include the promotion of breastfeeding and complementary feeding among the interventions to reduce the common modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases, highlighting maternal and child nutrition as a priority area of intervention [5,6]. Our results highlight the importance of researching women’s low milk production and work-related factors, with particular emphasis on improving conciliation measures
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