Social and Psychological Factors in Mother’s Environment Influencing Breastfeeding Duration

The aim of this master thesis is to evaluate the duration of breastfeeding; determine what social and psychological factors of mother have impact on breastfeeding duration; determine the most common reasons to discontinue breastfeeding. This prospective study was performed in the the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Science Kauno klinikos the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Participants were adult women who gave birth in mentioned department during the first half of 2017. The first questionnaire was done in the hospital 1-3 days after giving birth. Repeat questionnaires were sent to these women by e-mail until 29 months after giving birth. 213 women remained responsive until the end of the study. The average duration of breastfeeding was 11,24 months (SD 8,74; median 10). Statistically significant factors to breastfeeding duration were woman age, education, number of previous children, their participance in breastfeeding courses. There was no impact found between groups of living location, social status surrounding support of breastfeeding. Conducted data showed that most common reasons for discontinuation of breastfeeding were “absence of milk” (30,9% (n= 59) of all participants) and “mother’s decision that it is enough” (30,4% (n=54)). But statistically significant differences of breastfeeding discontinuation reasons were found between different breastfeeding duration groups