Breastfeeding: Biological and Social Variables in Different Modes of Conception

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding has effects on health throughout the lives of mothers and babies. In 2014 in Italy, 10,976 babies were born through ART (assisted reproductive technology), accounting for 2.2% of annual births. The study aims to assess how both social and biological variables and the mode of conception influence breastfeeding. Methods: This observational study involves 161 pregnancies from three different modes of conception: homologous in vitro fertilization, ovum donation, and spontaneous pregnancies. Neonatal and maternal characteristics were collected from the hospital database, while breastfeeding outcomes were obtained through telephone interviews. Results: The mode of conception did not influence any of the breastfeeding outcomes. Breastfeeding duration was negatively affected by smoking. Vaginal delivery, birth weight > 2500 g, delivery > 37 gestational weeks, breastfeeding intention, and rooming-in are positively associated with the initiation of breastfeeding, while skin-to-skin contact and receiving information concerning breastfeeding are the most significant variables associated with its exclusivity and duration. Conclusions: The duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding are mainly related with information thereon, promotion, and breastfeeding support, but not with the mode of conception. It is essential to adequately support women from the outset in breastfeeding, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

Exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months after assisted and spontaneous conceiving: a prospective study in Northern Italy

“…The effort we made to have comparable groups with homogeneous clinical characteristics (mothers sharing the double-occupancy room simultaneously, who gave birth to healthy, full-term, singleton infant) and the pragmatic enrollment, coupled with the support given by the same formed team, makes the obtained results reliable. Moreover, these outcomes comply with the previous cited Italian studies 10,16 . Nevertheless, we believe that our study can be further confirmed in a larger investigation.…”

“…Two previous Italian case-control studies 10,16 that examined the association between the mode of conception and breastfeeding outcomes obtained similar results. Cromi et al 16 investigated the initiation, duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding among women who had conceived with the help of ART, compared with a matched control group who conceived spontaneously.…”

“…Then, the percentage of mothers who exclusively breastfed their child for six months became similar between the two groups. Pileri et al 10 described similar results for ART and physiologically conceiving mothers. The length and exclusivity of breastfeeding were mainly associated with the multidisciplinary maternal breastfeeding approach, such as information, promotion and support, but not with the mode of conception.…”

“…Literature highlight controversial results about breastfeeding duration after assisted pregnancy, in particular if this association exists or not, and if depends by different types or length of fertility intervention. Some authors demonstrated that women who conceived through ART stopped breastfeeding earlier or breastfed for a shorter period than those who conceived spontaneously; other authors showed no differences in the length of breastfeeding between spontaneous and fertility treated conceiving [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] .…”

Model development of early breastfeeding initiation and exclusive preparation

“…In comparison, on average, respondents who became the control group (not accompanied) managed to do EBI in the third 30 minutes. Information from Table 3 explains that the process of mentoring from the closest person to maternity mothers is strong support psychologically that can mentally awaken pregnant women to face anxiety and realize the importance of love to the baby who will be born in the form of awareness of carrying out EBI [28]- [30].…”