Fear of Childbirth Impairs Breastfeeding Success Independent of Mode of Birth
Abstract
Background: The good qualities of breastfeeding are well known. The aim of this study was to closely examine the impact of specific maternal, prenatal, obstetric, and early neonatal factors on the success of breastfeeding.
Materials and Methods: We used data from the Kuopio Birth Cohort study and analyzed 2,521 online questionnaires, which were answered by women 1 year after giving birth. Breastfeeding variables were divided into successful breastfeeding (breastfeeding exclusively with one’s own breast milk ≥4 months or breastfeeding with formula ≥6 months) and poor breastfeeding (breastfeeding exclusively with one’s own milk <4 months and duration of all breastfeeding <6 months) for univariate and multivariable analyses.
Results: In this study, 97.8% (N = 2,466) reported breastfeeding their newborns for ≥1 postnatal week, and 75.2% (N = 1,896) breastfed newborns for ≥6 months. The rate of breastfeeding for ≥6 months increased from 71.3% to 84.7% between 2013 and 2020. In the multivariable analysis, poor breastfeeding success was associated most significantly with smoking during pregnancy (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.75–7.81), twin pregnancy (aOR 4.13; 95% CI: 2.10–8.15), maternal obesity (body mass index > 35) (aOR 3.27; 95% CI: 2.15–4.99), fear of childbirth (aOR 2.80; 95% CI: 1.89–4.13), and birth during the period of 2013–2014 (aOR 2.94; 95% CI: 2.08–4.14) or 2015–2016 (aOR 2.62; 95% CI: 1.85–3.70). Other significant factors related to poor success were younger maternal age, nonmarried family relationships, passive or quitting smoking before or in the first trimester, any hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, birth by nonelective cesarean, and lowest or highest quartiles of birth weight.
Conclusions: Mother’s fear of childbirth is strongly associated with the poor breastfeeding success even after controlling for mode of birth.
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Copyright 2024, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
History
Published online: 9 December 2024
Published in print: December 2024
Published ahead of print: 2 October 2024
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Authors’ Contributions
M.V.: Software, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. A.K.: Conceptualization and writing—review and editing. K.B.: Investigation, conceptualization, methodology, resources, and writing—review and editing. S.H.: Investigation, conceptualization, resources, and writing—review and editing. L.K.-N.: Conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, resources, data curation, and supervision.
Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.
Funding Information
This work was supported by the Research Committee of the Kuopio University Hospital Catchment Area for the State Research Funding. The author acknowledges the Research Committee of the Kuopio University Hospital Catchment Area for the State Research Funding (project 5302475, Kuopio, Finland).
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