Effect of gestation on initiation and duration of breastfeeding
- 1Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- 2Mother and Child Health Research, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia
- L H Amir, Mother and Child Health Research, La Trobe University, 324–328 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 3000, Australia; l.amir{at}latrobe.edu.au
- Accepted 4 April 2008
- Published Online First 1 May 2008
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of gestation on initiation and duration of breastfeeding in Australian infants.
Methods: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children recruited a national sample of children born between March 2003 and February 2004 (n = 3600 in this multivariate sample).
Results: Breastfeeding initiation was lower for infants of 35–36 weeks’ gestation (88.2%) than 37–39 weeks’ gestation (92.0%) and ≥40 weeks’ gestation (93.9%). At 6 months, 41.2% of infants 35–36 weeks’ gestation were breastfeeding compared with 54.5% of 37–39 weeks’ gestation infants and 60.5% of infants born ≥40 weeks. Compared with infants born ≥40 weeks, infants born at 35–36 weeks had an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.51 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.76) and infants born at 37–39 weeks had an adjusted OR of 0.80 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.93) of breastfeeding at 6 months.
Conclusion: Infants born before 40 weeks are at greater risk of being artificially fed than infants born ≥40 weeks.
Footnotes
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Competing interests: None.
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Funding: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. The authors received no funding for this analysis.
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Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Australian Institute of Family Studies Ethics Committee.
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Patient consent: Written informed consent was obtained for each participating child.
