Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background & Aim: Breast feeding promotes the child health. World Health Organization recommends breast feeding to be continued till the end of 2 years old, but, sometimes, the process of breastfeeding stops earlier in mothers bearing an excess weight. The mother with excess weight has less successful effort than the others in feeding the babies with their own milk. The aim of this study was to determine the relation between body mass index before pregnancy and durationm of breast feeding.

  Material & Method: This was a correlational study. Sample consited of 307 mothers who had children with 2-3 years old and had been visited in Tehran West Health Center for their children growth monitoring. The subjects were selected based on stratified sampling method and data was collected by questionnaire and from medical records.

  Results: This study showed a statistically significant relationship between body mass index and duration of breast feeding (P=0.002). Among different indicators, the type of delivery and the time of the first breasteeding were of greater importance and left a significant impact (P<0.05). The average breast feeding time in this research was 18 months. There was not any statistically significant relationship between breast feeding duration and mother’s age, child’s gender, mother’s education, mother’s profession, mother's working shift, family members, number of deliveries, number of previous children whom were breast fed.

  Conclusion: There was a statistically significant between body mass index and breast feeding duration. Considering the relationship between short duration of breast feeding and mothers’ obesity, a brave effort should be made for balancing mother’s weight. More researche is recommended to confirm these results