The Association between Breastfeeding-Friendly Environments and Continuing Breastfeeding 4 and 6 Months Postpartum:2008-2011 National Surveys in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chia-Chian Lee, 李佳蒨
• Other Authors: Li-Yin Chien
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/26487238335290265917

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 臨床暨社區護理研究所 === 101 === Background：The World Health Organization recommends that babies should be breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life, which has been adopted by many countries as a policy goal. Recent years, with increasing maternal employment, inconvenience associated with breastfeeding in workplace or public place was an important factor for breastfeeding discontinuation. Therefore, several countries adopt policies to build friendly breastfeeding environment in order to increase rate and duration of breastfeeding. Nonetheless, few empirical evidences exist linking friendly breastfeeding environment and continuing breastfeeding. Therefore, we examined the association between the factors of friendly breastfeeding environment and continuing breastfeeding till 4 and 6 months postpartum in the years 2008 to 2011 in Taiwan. Methods：This study was a secondary data analysis using 4 national cross-sectional surveys of postpartum women in the years 2008 to 2011 commissioned by the Health Promotion Administration, Department of Health and Welfare. The study population was probability samples of mothers between 4 months to 3 years postpartum at the time of data collection. The 2008 to 2011 surveys included 1458 to 12455 women yearly. Data were collected by telephone interviews with the women using structured questionnaires. Weighted results were analyzed in order to enhance representativeness. Results：In the years 2008 to 2011, postpartum women’s response to use of the friendly breastfeeding environment factors increased, including the percentage of use of the lactation rooms in public places (improved from 34.6% to 47.8%, p<0.001), the percentage of having lactation rooms in workplace (improved from 14.5% to 25.4%, p<0.001), the percentage of using workplace lactation rooms among working mothers (improved from 51.1% to 64.1%, p<0.001), the percentage of awareness of the breastfeeding consultation phone line and website (improved from 15.2% to 24.9% and 17.4% to 24.8%, respectively; both p<0.01), the percentage of use of the breastfeeding consultation phone line and website (improved from 9.2% to 13.7%, p=0.04 and 29.9% to 55.9%, p<0.001, respectively), the percentage of use of breastfeeding volunteer services (improved from 11.2% to 17.3%, p=0.01), and the percentage of delivery in the Baby-Friendly Hospital (improved from 44.1% to 68.0%, p＜0.001). But the percentage of women participating in breastfeeding support groups decreased from 13.3% to 3.7% ( p＜0.001). The logistic regression results showed that significant factors positively associated with continuing breastfeeding 4 and 6 months postpartum were 30-34 years of age, university graduates, unemployed, multipara, and vaginal delivery. After controlling for those factors and years, we found that factors significantly and positively associated with continuing breastfeeding 4 months and 6 months postpartum were public place lactation room use, workplace lactation room use, consultation phone line use, breastfeeding website use, breastfeeding volunteer services use, breastfeeding support groups participation, delivery in the Baby-Friendly Hospitals, and maternal leave for 6 months or more. Conclusion: The set up and use of friendly breastfeeding environment improved during the past years, which was positively associated with continuing breastfeeding 4 months and 6 months postpartum. Therefore, further strengthening and promoting friendly breastfeeding environment is suggested in order to increase the duration of breastfeeding.