Maternal depression and breastfeeding duration in Hispanic mothers

Background: Many US mothers do not meet recommendations on breastfeeding (BF) duration. Prenatal psychosocial characteristics such as depression may be related to BF cessation but few studies have explored these associations.

Methods: Analysis of baseline prenatal, 3 and 10 month postpartum survey data from Starting Early, an RCT of a primary care-based child obesity prevention intervention at an urban public hospital. Low SES Hispanic women enrolled in 3rd trimester of pregnancy; mother-infant dyads followed for 3 years. Independent variables: prenatal depressive symptoms (PHQ-9; score ≥ 5 positive depressive symptoms). Dependent variable: BF cessation at 10 months.  Confounders controlled for: delivery type, education, overweight/obese, parity, WIC, intervention group, infant gender, depressive symptoms at 3 months and working at 10 months. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses used to determine associations between prenatal depressive symptoms and BF cessation.

Results:  n=207. Maternal mean age (sd): 27(5.8). 35% had depressive symptoms prenatally; 19% at 3 months. At 10-months 48% had stopped BF and 28% were working. Women with prenatal depressive symptoms had 3 times the odds of stopping BF. (AOR=3.1, p<.05) Working mothers were also more likely to have stopped BF. (AOR=3.6, p<.01). 3-month depressive symptoms were not associated with BF cessation.

Conclusions: 10 month BF rates were higher in this sample than those in many low SES groups. However, women’s pre and postnatal psychosocial and demographic factors did affect BF cessation. These findings suggest that programs to support mental health in pregnancy and BF in the workplace may be helpful in BF promotion.