Breastfeeding duration rates and factors affecting continued breastfeeding among infants born at an inner-city US Baby-Friendly hospital.
The effects of Baby-Friendly status on breastfeeding duration in the United States have not been published. The objectives of this study were to obtain breastfeeding rates at 6 months among babies born in a US Baby-Friendly hospital and to assess factors associated with continued breastfeeding at 6 months. The authors randomly selected 350 medical records of infants born in 2003 at Baby-Friendly Boston Medical Center. Of 336 eligible infants, 248 (74%) attended the 6-month well-child visit and 37.1% (92/248) were breastfeeding at 6 months. In multivariate logistic regression, the likelihood of breastfeeding at 6 months was decreased by presence of a feeding problem in the hospital (AOR 0.27; 95% CI 0.07-0.99), whereas the likelihood of breastfeeding at 6 months increased with maternal age (AOR 1.05; 95% CI 1.00-1.10) and for mothers born in Africa (AOR 4.29; 95% CI 1.36-13.5) or of unrecorded birthplace (AOR 3.29; 95% CI 1.38-7.85). Breastfeeding duration is traditionally poor in low-income, black populations in the United States. Among a predominantly low-income and black population giving birth at a US Baby-Friendly hospital, breastfeeding rates at 6 months were comparable to the overall US population.
Merewood
Anne
A
Boston University School of Medicine, Breastfeeding Center, Boston Medical Center, MA, USA.
Patel
Birva
B
Newton
Kimberly Niles
KN
MacAuley
Lindsay P
LP
Chamberlain
Laura Beth
LB
Francisco
Patricia
P
Mehta
Supriya D
SD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001900:Boston / Q000453:epidemiology; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008423:Maternal Age; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors