The Relationship between Life Stress and Breastfeeding Outcomes among Low-Income Mothers

Table 2

Breastfeeding cessation outcomes across maternal stress categories (𝑛=341).

	Categories of stress experienced
	Financial^a		Emotional^b		Traumatic^c		Partner-Associated^d
	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	𝑛=224	𝑛=115	𝑛=100	n = 231	𝑛=102	𝑛=233	𝑛=169	𝑛=172
	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)
Cessation of any BF
by 4 Weeks	58 (25.9)	16 (13.9)	20 (20.0)	52 (22.5)	26 (25.5)	46 (19.7)	46 (27.2)	28 (16.3)
by 13 Weeks	126 (56.3)	64 (55.7)	60 (60.0)	125 (54.1)	61 (59.8)	125 (53.6)	107 (63.3)	83 (48.3)
Cessation of exclusive BF^e
by 4 Weeks	157 (70.1)	70 (60.9)	70 (70.0)	151 (65.4)	76 (74.5)	148 (63.5)	121 (71.6)	107 (62.2)
by 13 Weeks	191 (85.3)	90 (78.3)	83 (83.0)	190 (82.3)	95 (93.1)	182 (78.1)	151 (89.3)	131 (76.2)

Abbreviations: BF: breastfeeding.
^aFinancial stress defined as answering yes to one of the following occurring during or in the month after pregnancy: big problems with money, moved to a new address. (missing data from 2 mothers).
^bEmotional stress defined as answering yes to one of the following occurring during or in the month after pregnancy: family member had serious accident/illness, husband/partner had serious accident/illness, husband/partner died, friend/relative died (missing data from 10 mothers).
^cTraumatic stress defined as answering yes to one of the following occurring during or in the month after pregnancy: stayed in a shelter or needed emergency shelter, physical fights with partner/husband or someone else, husband/partner had legal trouble and/or went to jail, mother had legal trouble and/or went to jail, someone very close had a problem with drinking or drugs (missing data from 6 mothers).
^dPartner-Associated stress defined as answering yes to one of the following occurring during or in the month after pregnancy: separated from husband/partner, argued with husband/partner more often, husband/partner said he did not want pregnancy (missing data from 0 mothers).
^eBreastfeeding exclusivity was defined as the infant receiving only breast milk and no other liquid or solid food. This calculated outcome was based on mothers self-report of length of breastfeeding (infant age when last received breastmilk) and age when the infant first received formula, other liquids cereal, or solid foods.