Breastfeeding and weaning practices among Hong Kong mothers: a prospective study

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Research Article

Joan E Dodgson¹  Emmy MY Wong²  Christine Lam³  Irene LY Lee⁴  Alice Sham⁵  Daniel YT Fong⁶  Marie Tarrant⁶  Kendra M Wu⁷ 

[1] College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, Arizona State University, 500 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ, USA;Dept. of Health and Physical Education, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong;Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong;Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong;Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong;School of Nursing, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong;School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong;

关键词: Breast Milk;    Postpartum Period;    Infant Formula;    Exclusive Breastfeed;    Early Postpartum Period;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2393-10-27

 received in 2009-10-29, accepted in 2010-05-29,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundBreastfeeding provides optimal and complete nutrition for newborn babies. Although new mothers in Hong Kong are increasingly choosing to breastfeed their babies, rates of exclusive breastfeeding are low and duration remains short. The purpose of this study was to describe the breastfeeding and weaning practices of Hong Kong mothers over the infant's first year of life to determine the factors associated with early cessation.MethodsA cohort of 1417 mother-infant pairs was recruited from the obstetric units of four public hospitals in Hong Kong in the immediate post-partum period and followed prospectively for 12 months or until weaned. We used descriptive statistics to describe breastfeeding and weaning practices and multiple logistic regression to investigate the relationship between maternal characteristics and breastfeeding cessation.ResultsAt 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months only 63%, 37.3%, 26.9%, and 12.5% of the infants respectively, were still receiving any breast milk; approximately one-half of breastfeeding mothers were exclusively breastfeeding. Younger mothers, those with a longer duration of residence in Hong Kong, and those returning to work postpartum were more likely to wean before 1 month. Mothers with higher education, previous breastfeeding experience, who were breastfed themselves and those who were planning to exclusively breastfeed and whose husbands preferred breastfeeding were more likely to continue breastfeeding beyond 1 month. The introduction of infant formula before 1 month and returning to work postpartum were predictive of weaning before 3 months.ConclusionsBreastfeeding promotion programs have been successful in achieving high rates of breastfeeding initiation but the focus must now shift to helping new mothers exclusively breastfeed and sustain breastfeeding for longer.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Tarrant et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010