I don't want to leave my child: How mothers and fathers affect mother's breastfeeding duration and leave length

Abstract

After the birth of a child, employed mothers must make return‐to‐work and breastfeeding decisions. Prior organizational research focuses on how the mother's work environment affects these decisions, yet they are made with personal and relationship considerations in mind. We use the work‐home resources model and identity theory to address two pressing questions. First, do mothers' identity and fathers' paternity leave provide resources for supporting breastfeeding and return to work? Second, can mothers' separation anxiety help explain the psychological mechanisms for this process? We expect more work‐centric mothers and those whose partners take longer leaves to have lower maternal separation anxiety, and thereby shorter maternity leave length and shorter breastfeeding duration. We leverage the National Institute of Child Health and Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. We conducted analyses using data from 491 families and nine time points from childbirth to 3 years post birth. Consistent with the work‐home resources model, the father's leave length is negatively related to mother's separation anxiety, which is positively related to her leave length. We also found that the father's leave length is directly and positively related to mother's leave length and breastfeeding duration, and the mother's work centrality is negatively related to her leave length. We explain how these results fit into the work‐home resources model and suggest organizations should provide mothers with control over return‐to‐work decisions and encourage longer paternity leave.