Maternal activity budgets: Feasibility of exclusive breastfeeding for six months among urban women in Honduras

Roberta J. Cohen; Kimber Haddix; Elena Hurtado; Kathryn G. Dewey

doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V

Maternal activity budgets: Feasibility of exclusive breastfeeding for six months among urban women in Honduras

Roberta J. Cohen
, Kimber Haddix
, Elena Hurtado
, Kathryn G. Dewey

School of Public and Community Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is likely to be beneficial for infant health, mothers often cite time pressures as a reason to introduce other foods. Using 12-hr in-home observations at 19 and 24 wk postpartum, we compared maternal activity budgets and time spent breastfeeding among low-income, urban mothers not employed outside the home who exclusively breastfed (EBF) or gave other foods in addition to breast milk (BF + SF). Breastfeeding time was similar between groups (averaging approx 75 min 12 hr) except that multiparous EBF mothers at 24 wk spent more time breastfeeding their infants than did BF + SF mothers. However, total time devoted to infant feeding (including preparation and feeding of solids in the BF + SF group) was significantly greater in the BF + SF group than in the EBF group (except among multiparous women at 24 wk). Feeding frequency per 12-hr averaged 6.7-8.9 in the EBF group and 5.4-8.1 BF + 1.8 meals in the BF + SF group. Both EBF and BF + SF mothers had considerable 'free' time; they spent, on average, 2-3 hr during each 12-hr period resting, chatting or watching TV. Primiparous women tended to spend less time at household chores and child care than multiparous women. Of the BF + SF mothers, 60% said that breastfeeding was 'somewhat' or 'very' time-demanding (vs 15% of EBF mothers), 49% said that it interfered with other activities (vs 6% of EBF mothers), and 26% said that they gave other foods to extend the time between breastfeeds. Although many of the BF + SF mothers knew that giving foods may increase infant illness, there were cultural pressures not to exclusively breastfeed. For example, many introduced solids to their infants prior to 6 months because they believed that infants should 'learn' how to eat other foods, to 'acclimate' the stomach and learn to differentiate flavors. We conclude that time constraints are not a barrier to exclusive breastfeeding in this population, although they may be perceived as a barrier.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	527-536
Number of pages	10
Journal	Social Science and Medicine
Volume	41
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V
State	Published - Aug 1995

Funding

Acknowledgements--This work was supported jointly by the Thrasher Research Fund; the World Health Organization; UNICEF/Honduras and the Institute for Reproductive Health (formerly the Institute for International Studies in Natural Family Planning), Georgetown University, under a Cooperative Agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (A.I.D) (DPE-3040-A-00-5064-00 and DPE-306 I-A-00-1029-00). The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions. Complementary foods were provided at reduced cost by Gerber Products Company. We would like to acknowledge the collaboration of La Leche League/Honduras as the local institution involved in the study. We are grateful to the Honduran research team for their dedicated work on the observations and to the mothers of San Pedro Sula for their willingness to allow us into their homes.

Funders	Funder number
United States Agency for International Development	DPE-3040-A-00-5064-00, DPE-306 I-A-00-1029-00
World Health Organization
Georgetown University

Keywords

breastfeeding
infant feeding
maternal time allocation

Access to Document

10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V

Cite this

@article{b2cead304f5749d0bfcbc62d3e89f08b,

title = "Maternal activity budgets: Feasibility of exclusive breastfeeding for six months among urban women in Honduras",

abstract = "Although exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is likely to be beneficial for infant health, mothers often cite time pressures as a reason to introduce other foods. Using 12-hr in-home observations at 19 and 24 wk postpartum, we compared maternal activity budgets and time spent breastfeeding among low-income, urban mothers not employed outside the home who exclusively breastfed (EBF) or gave other foods in addition to breast milk (BF + SF). Breastfeeding time was similar between groups (averaging approx 75 min 12 hr) except that multiparous EBF mothers at 24 wk spent more time breastfeeding their infants than did BF + SF mothers. However, total time devoted to infant feeding (including preparation and feeding of solids in the BF + SF group) was significantly greater in the BF + SF group than in the EBF group (except among multiparous women at 24 wk). Feeding frequency per 12-hr averaged 6.7-8.9 in the EBF group and 5.4-8.1 BF + 1.8 meals in the BF + SF group. Both EBF and BF + SF mothers had considerable 'free' time; they spent, on average, 2-3 hr during each 12-hr period resting, chatting or watching TV. Primiparous women tended to spend less time at household chores and child care than multiparous women. Of the BF + SF mothers, 60\% said that breastfeeding was 'somewhat' or 'very' time-demanding (vs 15\% of EBF mothers), 49\% said that it interfered with other activities (vs 6\% of EBF mothers), and 26\% said that they gave other foods to extend the time between breastfeeds. Although many of the BF + SF mothers knew that giving foods may increase infant illness, there were cultural pressures not to exclusively breastfeed. For example, many introduced solids to their infants prior to 6 months because they believed that infants should 'learn' how to eat other foods, to 'acclimate' the stomach and learn to differentiate flavors. We conclude that time constraints are not a barrier to exclusive breastfeeding in this population, although they may be perceived as a barrier.",

keywords = "breastfeeding, infant feeding, maternal time allocation",

author = "Cohen, \{Roberta J.\} and Kimber Haddix and Elena Hurtado and Dewey, \{Kathryn G.\}",

year = "1995",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V",

language = "English",

volume = "41",

pages = "527--536",

journal = "Social Science and Medicine",

issn = "0277-9536",

publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal activity budgets

T2 - Feasibility of exclusive breastfeeding for six months among urban women in Honduras

AU - Cohen, Roberta J.

AU - Haddix, Kimber

AU - Hurtado, Elena

AU - Dewey, Kathryn G.

PY - 1995/8

Y1 - 1995/8

N2 - Although exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is likely to be beneficial for infant health, mothers often cite time pressures as a reason to introduce other foods. Using 12-hr in-home observations at 19 and 24 wk postpartum, we compared maternal activity budgets and time spent breastfeeding among low-income, urban mothers not employed outside the home who exclusively breastfed (EBF) or gave other foods in addition to breast milk (BF + SF). Breastfeeding time was similar between groups (averaging approx 75 min 12 hr) except that multiparous EBF mothers at 24 wk spent more time breastfeeding their infants than did BF + SF mothers. However, total time devoted to infant feeding (including preparation and feeding of solids in the BF + SF group) was significantly greater in the BF + SF group than in the EBF group (except among multiparous women at 24 wk). Feeding frequency per 12-hr averaged 6.7-8.9 in the EBF group and 5.4-8.1 BF + 1.8 meals in the BF + SF group. Both EBF and BF + SF mothers had considerable 'free' time; they spent, on average, 2-3 hr during each 12-hr period resting, chatting or watching TV. Primiparous women tended to spend less time at household chores and child care than multiparous women. Of the BF + SF mothers, 60% said that breastfeeding was 'somewhat' or 'very' time-demanding (vs 15% of EBF mothers), 49% said that it interfered with other activities (vs 6% of EBF mothers), and 26% said that they gave other foods to extend the time between breastfeeds. Although many of the BF + SF mothers knew that giving foods may increase infant illness, there were cultural pressures not to exclusively breastfeed. For example, many introduced solids to their infants prior to 6 months because they believed that infants should 'learn' how to eat other foods, to 'acclimate' the stomach and learn to differentiate flavors. We conclude that time constraints are not a barrier to exclusive breastfeeding in this population, although they may be perceived as a barrier.

AB - Although exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is likely to be beneficial for infant health, mothers often cite time pressures as a reason to introduce other foods. Using 12-hr in-home observations at 19 and 24 wk postpartum, we compared maternal activity budgets and time spent breastfeeding among low-income, urban mothers not employed outside the home who exclusively breastfed (EBF) or gave other foods in addition to breast milk (BF + SF). Breastfeeding time was similar between groups (averaging approx 75 min 12 hr) except that multiparous EBF mothers at 24 wk spent more time breastfeeding their infants than did BF + SF mothers. However, total time devoted to infant feeding (including preparation and feeding of solids in the BF + SF group) was significantly greater in the BF + SF group than in the EBF group (except among multiparous women at 24 wk). Feeding frequency per 12-hr averaged 6.7-8.9 in the EBF group and 5.4-8.1 BF + 1.8 meals in the BF + SF group. Both EBF and BF + SF mothers had considerable 'free' time; they spent, on average, 2-3 hr during each 12-hr period resting, chatting or watching TV. Primiparous women tended to spend less time at household chores and child care than multiparous women. Of the BF + SF mothers, 60% said that breastfeeding was 'somewhat' or 'very' time-demanding (vs 15% of EBF mothers), 49% said that it interfered with other activities (vs 6% of EBF mothers), and 26% said that they gave other foods to extend the time between breastfeeds. Although many of the BF + SF mothers knew that giving foods may increase infant illness, there were cultural pressures not to exclusively breastfeed. For example, many introduced solids to their infants prior to 6 months because they believed that infants should 'learn' how to eat other foods, to 'acclimate' the stomach and learn to differentiate flavors. We conclude that time constraints are not a barrier to exclusive breastfeeding in this population, although they may be perceived as a barrier.

KW - breastfeeding

KW - infant feeding

KW - maternal time allocation

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0028991075

U2 - 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V

DO - 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00354-V

M3 - Article

C2 - 7481947

AN - SCOPUS:0028991075

SN - 0277-9536

VL - 41

SP - 527

EP - 536

JO - Social Science and Medicine

JF - Social Science and Medicine

IS - 4

ER -

Maternal activity budgets: Feasibility of exclusive breastfeeding for six months among urban women in Honduras

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this