[Factors associated with the choice of breast or bottle-feeding for hospitalized newborns]

This study was carried out in Rennes's maternity hospitals (France), to determine the breastfeeding rate for newborns hospitalized after birth, as well as the factors associated with the choice to breastfeed or not in these conditions.

Three hundred and twenty mothers delivered in Rennes Teaching Hospital, whose neonates were transferred in neonatal care unit, were questioned about their choice for neonate feeding.

Three hundred and eight of the 320 mothers concerned by the study answered our interview. Fifty one percent of them chose to breast feed, which is near the breastfeeding rate of the general population of Rennes' maternity hospitals (52%). A high sociocultural level, a mother previously breastfed herself, and a previous breast feeding (RR = 5.2; P < 10(-8)) were associated with the choice of breastfeeding. Factors concerning the information of the mothers were also associated with the choice of breastfeeding information during the preparation to birth sessions (RR = 1.7; P < 10(-5)), individual information on the breastfeeding of an ill newborn (RR = 1.5; P < 0.01), and the simple advice to breastfeed given by a health care professional (RR = 2; P < 10(-8)). Of the four qualities named, the more breast-milk qualities a mother knew, the higher breastfeeding rate was (10% for none, 27% for one, 54% for two, and 76% for three or four). Concerning the postnatal factors, gestational age below 31 weeks multiplied breast feeding by 1.5 (P < 0.05), and an early contact mother-child (first day) by 1.3 (P < 0.05).

This study pointed out the populations at risk of no breastfeeding. Informations on the properties of breastfeeding given to mothers by health care professionals may influence them in their choice of breast feeding or not their ill newborn.