SMOKING AND BREAST-FEEDING STATUS

In women who breastfeed, cigarette smoking is associated with early te rmination of lactation. The relationship among smoking, demographic va riables, and breastfeeding status at 8 weeks postpartum was examined i n 400 mothers of term infants and 110 mothers of low-birth-weight (LBW ) infants using multivariate analysis. Women who smoked were more apt to stop breastfeeding early in both study samples. In addition, in the term sample, older and married women more frequently reported breastf eeding at 8 weeks than younger, nonmarried women. In the LBW sample, t hose who were employed were less apt to report breastfeeding at 8 week s than those who were unemployed. Also, a greater proportion of smoker s in both samples indicated insufficient milk as a reason for a declin e in breastfeeding compared to nonsmokers. The effects of cigarette sm oking should be examined in subsequent studies of breastfeeding patter ns. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.