Maternal diet and breastfeeding duration of infants after NICU hospitalization in Greece: a cohort study

To investigate the role of maternal diet, personal characteristics and willingness to breastfeed on breastfeeding duration of hospitalized neonates as well as to evaluate the mothers' dietetic intake based on the national recommendations.

A sample of 161 pregnant women from Athens, Greece was followed up during pregnancy, labor and the first 40 weeks of lactation. The participants attended breastfeeding classes and were interviewed regarding their nutritional habits, personal characteristics and breastfeeding intention. A multivariable logistic regression, adjusted for maternal age, smoking, weeks of gestation, body mass index, mode of delivery was conducted in order to estimate the adjusted odds ratios of breastfeeding for at least 6 months for consuming additional serves of fruit or vegetables from the recommended by the national guidelines.

The adjusted odds ratios for breastfeeding at 6 months was 2.15 (p = 0.05) for women consumed  ≥3.5 servings of fruits/day. Moreover, the participants reported low conformity with the national dietetic guidelines.

Mothers who consumed the recommended by the NDG fruit servings/day breast-fed their hospitalized newborns for a longer period. Despite the fact that our participants were highly motivated and willing to breast-feed, we argue that this relationship is highly unlikely to be biological.