I just read that a new study has found that most new moms don't meet their own breastfeeding goals and I wasn't surprised at all because I was one of them. I had planned on breastfeeding my daughter until she was at least 6 months old, although a whole year would've been ideal. Sadly, we barely made it to 5 months.
Apparently, as researchers at the CDC found in their study published today in the journal Pediatrics, I'm not alone. The majority of the women in the study who planned to breastfeed from several weeks to seven months or more failed to meet their goals.
In fact, many women who planned on breastfeeding for months stopped after only one month and 15 percent of new moms didn't even continue past their hospital stay. The reasons? A variety of them, including what hospital staff does and doesn't do in the first hours and days after delivery.
Although a mom's stay in the hospital is typically very short, the time spent there is critical. Researchers found that moms were more likely to breastfeed for the time they intended if they were able to breastfeed their newborns within an hour after delivery and if their babies weren't given formula or pacifiers while at the hospital.
While I breastfed my daughter pretty much immediately after she was born and she wasn't given any formula at the hospital, I did give her a pacifier the second night of her life. Like most mothers, I'd read that pacifiers created problems for breastfed babies because of the nipple confusion and all. Although that obviously wasn't the case with my daughter—since I breastfed her for about 5 months—I'm now left wondering if the pacifier had something to do with my inability to meet my breastfeeding goal.
What do you think of this study? Please let us know by leaving us a comment.
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