WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT:It is known that breastfeeding behavior is affected by maternity leave length and time of return to work. However, previous studies have mainly been conducted among subgroups of women and limited to small sample sizes. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:This study adds to the literature by using recent, nationally representative data. In addition, breastfeeding duration was followed longitudinally for up to 2 years compared with previous studies that have looked at breastfeeding duration for Յ1 year. abstract OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effect of maternity leave length and time of first return to work on breastfeeding.

To improve the acceptance of PrEP among providers, there is a need to develop tailored education/training programs to alleviate their concerns about the safety and efficacy of PrEP.

Purpose-Despite the increase in breastfeeding initiation and duration in the United States, only five states have met the three Healthy People 2010 breastfeeding objectives. Our objectives are to study women's self-reported reasons for not initiating breastfeeding and to determine whether these reasons vary by race/ethnicity, and other maternal and hospital support characteristics. Methods-Data are from the 2000-2003 Arkansas Pregnancy Risk Assessment MonitoringSystem, restricting the sample to women who did not initiate breastfeeding (unweighted n = 2,917). Reasons for not initiating breastfeeding are characterized as individual reasons, household responsibilities, and circumstances. Analyses include the χ 2 test and multiple logistic regression.Results-About 38% of Arkansas mothers of live singletons did not initiate breastfeeding. There was a greater representation of non-Hispanic Blacks among those who did not initiate breastfeeding (32%) than among those who initiated breastfeeding (9.9%). Among those who never breastfed, individual reasons were most frequently cited for noninitiation (63.0%). After adjusting for covariates, Hispanics had three times the odds of citing circumstances than Whites (odds ratio [OR], 3.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-7.18). Women who indicated that the hospital staff did not teach them how to breastfeed had more than two times greater odds of citing individual reasons (OR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.30-3.91) or reasons related to household responsibilities (OR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.19-4.36) as compared with women who indicated they were taught.Conclusions-Findings suggest the need for targeting breastfeeding interventions to different subgroups of women. In addition, there are implications for policy particularly regarding breastfeeding support in hospitals.

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This article describes an investigation of the effect of postpartum employment and occupational type on breastfeeding initiation and duration. Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Postpartum employment status was classified as full-time, part-time, and not employed. Among postpartum workers, occupational type was classified as management, professional, service, sales, administrative, and "other." In adjusted analysis, professional women had a 20% greater likelihood of initiating breastfeeding than administrative workers (risk ratio [RR] 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.30). Full-time workers had a 10% lower likelihood of initiating breastfeeding than those not employed (RR 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.97). Among breastfeeding initiators, full-time workers had a 19% lower likelihood of any breastfeeding beyond 6 months than those not employed (RR 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65-0.99). To improve breastfeeding initiation and duration in the United States, part-time options may be an effective solution for working mothers.