Breastfeeding Initiation in a Rural Sample: Predictive Factors and the Role of Smoking
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-1-2011
Description
The study objective was to identify demographic, medical, and health behavior factors that predict breastfeeding initiation in a rural population with low breastfeeding rates. Participants were 2323 women who experienced consecutive deliveries at 2 hospitals, with data obtained through detailed chart review. Only half the women initiated breastfeeding, which was significantly associated with higher levels of education, private insurance, nonsmoking and non-drug-using status, and primiparity, after controlling for confounders. Follow-up analyses revealed that smoking status was the strongest predictor of failure to breastfeed, with nonsmokers nearly twice as likely to breastfeed as smokers and with those who had smoked a pack per day or more the least likely to breastfeed. Findings reveal many factors placing women at risk for not breastfeeding and suggest that intervention efforts should encourage a combination of smoking cessation and breastfeeding while emphasizing that breastfeeding is not contraindicated even if the mother continues to smoke.
Citation Information
Bailey, Beth A.; and Wright, Heather N.. 2011. Breastfeeding Initiation in a Rural Sample: Predictive Factors and the Role of Smoking. Journal of Human Lactation. Vol.27(1). 33-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334410386955 PMID: 21177987 ISSN: 0890-3344