Maternal employment and infant mortality: an examination of the role of breastfeeding as an intermediate factor.

In a survey of 2111 mothers in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, the relationship between infant mortality and maternal employment was examined. By the use of logit regression taking socioeconomic variables and breastfeeding into account, it was shown that children of working class mothers are likely to experience higher rates of infant death than those of non-working mothers, and these rates are higher in mothers working in the informal than in the formal sector. No effect of duration of breastfeeding was detectable, probably due to the universal practice of long lactation among the Yoruba. Intensity of breastfeeding is a key variable, for when this is taken into account, the effect of maternal occupation on infant death disappears. Other variables associated with infant mortality are mother's education, father's income, mother's age, and age of infant.