EXTREME ATTITUDES TO BODY SHAPE, SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL-FACTORS ANDA RELUCTANCE TO BREAST-FEED

Despite widespread advocacy of breast feeding, many babies are breast fed only briefly, if at all. Mothers' decisions on how to feed are oft en made before the birth; so we have sought demographic, social and ps ychological factors that might be amenable to intervention during preg nancy. In the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood about 12 000 women completed questionnaires in pregnancy. Univariate analys es were carried out to establish which factors were related to breast feeding intentions. All significant factors in univariate analyses wer e entered into logistic regression analyses. Demographic characteristi cs independently related to intentions to breast feed included older m aternal age, more maternal education, primiparity and not smoking; in previous work all these had been associated with actual feeding behavi our. Social relationship variables had a small influence. Of the psych ological variables, a notable finding was that women who were preoccup ied with their body shape and those who expressed controlling, less ch ild-centred, responses to managing an infant in the postnatal months w ere less likely to express intentions to breast feed. Depression did n ot predict breast feeding intentions once the other factors had been t aken into account. Health care professionals may be able to intervene to increase breast feeding by making routine enquiries during antenata l care and targeting appropriate subgroups.