Breastfeeding intentions of female physicians.
BACKGROUND
It is known that physician mothers' breastfeeding behavior impacts their anticipatory guidance to their patients, which in turn influences patients' breastfeeding initiation and continuation. Therefore, studying physician mothers' breastfeeding behavior is important, as it impacts not only the well-being of themselves and their families, but eventually the well-being of their patients and patients' families. However, previous studies of breastfeeding among physician mothers in the United States have not explored their breastfeeding intentions. We therefore sought to explore infant feeding intentions of physician mothers.


METHODS
We report data gathered from 50 physician volunteers, mainly affiliated with Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), using a questionnaire.


RESULTS
Consistent with previous physician studies, we found high breastfeeding initiation rates among our participants. However, the breastfeeding continuation rates of mothers in our study at 6 and 12 months were higher than those reported in previous physician studies. Our data showed that while physician mothers intended to breastfeed 64% of the infants for at least 12 months and while 97% of infants were breastfed at birth, only 41% continued to receive breastmilk at 12 months. This discrepancy suggests that work-related factors may influence physician mothers' breastfeeding behavior and might have a larger impact than these mothers' education and intentions on breastfeeding duration.


CONCLUSIONS
This finding supports implementing workplace strategies and programs to promote breastfeeding duration among physician mothers returning to work.
Sattari
Maryam
M
Department of Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA. msattar1@jhmi.edu
Levine
David
D
Bertram
Amanda
A
Serwint
Janet R
JR
D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D033182:Intention; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors