Low rates of predominant breastfeeding in hospital after gestational diabetes, particularly among Indigenous women in Australia.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate rates of 'any' and 'predominant' breastfeeding in hospital among Indigenous and non-Indigenous women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

METHODS

A retrospective study of singleton infants born from July 2007 to December 2010 at Cairns Hospital, Australia, following GDM pregnancy, using linked hospital and birth data (n=617 infants), with a subsample of medical record reviews (n=365 infants). Aggregate data were used to compare to breastfeeding rates among infants born following non-GDM pregnancy (n=7,894 infants).

RESULTS

More than 90% of all women reported any breastfeeding before hospital discharge. About 80% of women without GDM reported predominant breastfeeding. Despite significant increases over time (p<0.0001), women with GDM were less likely to predominantly breastfeed (OR 0.32, 95%CI 0.27-0.38, p<0.0001); with lower rates among Indigenous women (53%) compared with non-Indigenous (60%) women (OR 0.78, 0.70-0.88, p<0.0001); and women having a caesarean birth or pre-term infant.

CONCLUSIONS

Rates of predominant in-hospital breastfeeding were lower among women with GDM, particularly among Indigenous women and women having a caesarean or pre-term birth.

IMPLICATIONS: Strategies are needed to support predominant in-hospital breastfeeding among women with GDM.