Maternal obesity, health status during pregnancy, and breastfeeding initiation and duration.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal prepregnancy overweight/obesity has independent effects on breastfeeding initiation and duration and whether these effects are different for women who experience medical problems during pregnancy or labor/delivery complications in comparison with those who have no medical or labor/delivery complications.


METHODS
We used the early childhood longitudinal study-birth cohort data. Kaplan-Meier survival functions, logistic, and Cox regression modeling were used in the analyses.


RESULTS
Findings indicate that overweight/obese women with medical or labor/delivery complications were less likely to initiate breastfeeding in comparison with their counterparts of normal weight. We did not find an independent effect of prepregnancy overweight/obesity on breastfeeding initiation among women with no medical problems. This group of women, however, had an 11% increased risk of stopping breastfeeding with each additional month of breastfeeding duration in comparison to those of normal weight.


CONCLUSIONS
It is important to evaluate the health history and pregnancy complications among overweight/obese mothers in developing interventions for successful initiation and duration of breastfeeding.
Kitsantas
Panagiota
P
Department of Health Administration and Policy, College of Health and Human Services, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA. pkitsant@gmu.edu
Pawloski
Lisa R
LR
D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D050177:Overweight / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors