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Breastfeeding duration rates and factors affecting continued breastfeeding among infants born at an inner-city US Baby-Friendly hospital.

Merewood A, Patel B, Newton KN, MacAuley LP, Chamberlain LB, Francisco P, Mehta SD

Boston University School of Medicine, Breastfeeding Center, Boston Medical Center, MA, USA.

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.

Published 4 May 2007 in J Hum Lact, 23(2): 157-64.
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