Breastfeeding and risk for ceasing in mothers of preterm infants: Long‐term follow‐upShow others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Maternal and Child Nutrition, ISSN 1740-8695, E-ISSN 1740-8709, Vol. 14, no 4, article id e12618Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Breastfeeding is challenging for mothers of preterm infants. The aim of this paper is to describe risk factors for ceasing breastfeeding and methods of feeding until 12 months postnatal age in mothers who breastfed their preterm infants at discharge from neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The data come from a randomised controlled trial, which evaluated the effectiveness on exclusive breastfeeding at 8 weeks of proactive telephone support compared with reactive support offered to mothers of preterm infants following discharge from NICU. Six NICUs across Sweden randomised a total of 493 mothers. We used regression and survival analyses to assess the risk factors for ceasing breastfeeding and the long‐term outcomes of the intervention. The results showed that 305 (64%) of the infants were breastfed at 6 months and 49 (21%) at 12 months. Partial breastfeeding at discharge, low maternal educational level, and longer length of stay in the NICU increased the risk for ceasing breastfeeding during the first 12 months. Furthermore, the Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the proportion of mothers who ceased breastfeeding did not differ between the intervention (n = 231) and controls (n = 262) during the first 12 months (log‐rank test p = .68). No difference was found between groups on method of feeding. More than 85% of the infants were fed directly at the breast. These findings provide important insights for health professionals who are supporting mothers of preterm infants to breastfeed long term. Registered in www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01806480).
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Publishing, 2018. Vol. 14, no 4, article id e12618
Keywords [en]
Bottle, breast milk, feeding, mother, neonatal, RCT
National Category
Nursing Pediatrics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-66884DOI: 10.1111/mcn.12618ISI: 000448900800013PubMedID: 29733102Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85046532136OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-66884DiVA, id: diva2:1204289
Note
Funding Agencies:
Centre for Clinical Research Dalarna
Uppsala-Orebro Regional Research Council
Gillbergska Foundation
Birth Foundation
Foundation Samariten
Swedish Nursing Association
2018-05-072018-05-072018-11-19Bibliographically approved