TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal return to work and breastfeeding
T2 - A population-based cohort study
AU - Chuang, Chao Hua
AU - Chang, Pei Jen
AU - Chen, Yi Chun
AU - Hsieh, Wu Shiun
AU - Hurng, Baai Shyun
AU - Lin, Shio Jean
AU - Chen, Pau Chung
N1 - Funding Information:
The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study is supported by grants from the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, Taiwan. One of the duties of the Population and Health Research Center in the Bureau of Health Promotion is the planning and implementation of community-based population and health survey research. Hence, they have trained a number of interviewers in different areas of Taiwan. Consequently, the interviewers in the current study were trained by the Population and Health Research Center, and some of them participated in the pilot study. To ensure consistent quality, every interviewer accepted the standardized TBCS training programs before conducting the interviews, and the completed questionnaires were sampled randomly to double check them.
Funding Information:
Funding: This study was based on the data from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study Database and supported by grants BHP-PHRC-92-4, DOH93-HP-1702 and DOH94-HP-1702 from the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, Taiwan .
PY - 2010/4
Y1 - 2010/4
N2 - Background: In recent decades there has been a marked rise in the participation of women with infants in the labour market, while there has been a decline in the prevalence rate of breastfeeding. Objective: To explore the relationship between maternal return to work and breastfeeding. Design: An on-going prospective longitudinal study. Setting and participants: Multistage stratified systematic sampling was designed to recruit 24,200 pairs, postpartum women and newborns, from the Taiwan national birth register in 2005. Participating women underwent two home interviews at 6 and 18 months after giving birth, following structured questionnaires. A total of 21,248 and 20,172 women were interviewed, and the completed interview rate was thus 87.8% and 83.4% at 6 and 18 months, respectively. All study participants provided informed consent as approved by the Ethics Review Board of the National Taiwan College of Public Health. Results: The overall prevalence of initial breastfeeding was 83.7%. Postpartum women returning to work less than or equal to 1 month had the lowest initiation of breastfeeding rate (77.5%), but had a higher prevalence of breastfeeding duration less than or equal to 1 month (34.9%) than the overall population (26.8%). Overall 67.9%, 39.4%, 25.4%, and 12.7% mothers who started breastfeeding still breastfed their infants at the age of 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, respectively. Women with maternal leave of less than or equal to 6 months ceased breastfeeding earlier than those with maternal leave beyond 6 months and those who did not return to work up to 18 months after birth. After adjustment for potential confounders, odds ratios of initial breastfeeding seemed no different, except those for postpartum women who returned to work less than or equal to 1 month and those who did not return to work. Mothers returning to work within 1 year after giving birth were significantly earlier in weaning than those without return to work. Conclusion: In our study, an early maternal return to work, especial within 6 months after giving birth, was a barrier to the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding. Thus, a comprehensive strategy is required to encourage the practice of breastfeeding in working women from pregnancy to the return to work, and nurses should work to promote breastfeeding in the different occasion.
AB - Background: In recent decades there has been a marked rise in the participation of women with infants in the labour market, while there has been a decline in the prevalence rate of breastfeeding. Objective: To explore the relationship between maternal return to work and breastfeeding. Design: An on-going prospective longitudinal study. Setting and participants: Multistage stratified systematic sampling was designed to recruit 24,200 pairs, postpartum women and newborns, from the Taiwan national birth register in 2005. Participating women underwent two home interviews at 6 and 18 months after giving birth, following structured questionnaires. A total of 21,248 and 20,172 women were interviewed, and the completed interview rate was thus 87.8% and 83.4% at 6 and 18 months, respectively. All study participants provided informed consent as approved by the Ethics Review Board of the National Taiwan College of Public Health. Results: The overall prevalence of initial breastfeeding was 83.7%. Postpartum women returning to work less than or equal to 1 month had the lowest initiation of breastfeeding rate (77.5%), but had a higher prevalence of breastfeeding duration less than or equal to 1 month (34.9%) than the overall population (26.8%). Overall 67.9%, 39.4%, 25.4%, and 12.7% mothers who started breastfeeding still breastfed their infants at the age of 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, respectively. Women with maternal leave of less than or equal to 6 months ceased breastfeeding earlier than those with maternal leave beyond 6 months and those who did not return to work up to 18 months after birth. After adjustment for potential confounders, odds ratios of initial breastfeeding seemed no different, except those for postpartum women who returned to work less than or equal to 1 month and those who did not return to work. Mothers returning to work within 1 year after giving birth were significantly earlier in weaning than those without return to work. Conclusion: In our study, an early maternal return to work, especial within 6 months after giving birth, was a barrier to the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding. Thus, a comprehensive strategy is required to encourage the practice of breastfeeding in working women from pregnancy to the return to work, and nurses should work to promote breastfeeding in the different occasion.
KW - Breastfeeding
KW - Maternity leave
KW - Population-based cohort study
KW - Return to work
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.09.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.09.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 19819449
AN - SCOPUS:77349121381
SN - 0020-7489
VL - 47
SP - 461
EP - 474
JO - International Journal of Nursing Studies
JF - International Journal of Nursing Studies
IS - 4
ER -
