Project 173109

Breastfeeding is very important to the health of infants, children and mothers. Breastfeeding protects against the development of diseases in infants and children (including sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, infections of the gastrointestinal tract and breathing tract, asthma, allergies, obesity and diabetes), and mothers (diabetes, breast cancer and ovarian cancer). Exclusive breastfeeding (without supplementation) is the best method of feeding infants and is recommended for the first six months of life. Certain groups of women may be at particularly high risk of not breastfeeding, including First Nations women, women who are obese, or women who have twins. Most of the existing studies are biased because they only examine women who volunteer to be involved in research. Many studies do not explore the effect of whether the women was cared for by a midwife, family doctor or obstetrician, or the type of hospital at which she delivered, all of which we propose to do. We propose to study rates of breastfeeding in all women in Ontario who deliver a healthy infant. We will study factors that predict why some women intend to breastfeed and others do not, as well as why some women actually breastfeed and others do not. We will use the Niday perinatal database, which collects information on Ontario deliveries, mothers and infants, as well as the health care providers and hospitals. Our research team involves people with expertise in breastfeeding, pediatrics, neonatal nursing, obstetrics, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. Breastfeeding rates are suboptimal given the benefits for infants, children and mothers. Identifying factors that predict breastfeeding and not breastfeeding will be the important first step in developing breastfeeding support strategies to address barriers at all levels (patient, health care provider and hospital) in order to improve rates of breastfeeding.