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Research Communication

Unplanned Pregnancies Are Associated with Less Likelihood of Prolonged Breast-Feeding among Primiparous Women in Ghana¹

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

²To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rperez{at}canr.uconn.edu.

The objectives of this study were to examine the association between pregnancy intentions and the likelihood of breast-feeding and to determine whether parity modifies this relationship in Ghana. These cross-sectional analyses were based on the last-born children, aged 13–36 mo, of women participating in the 1993 Ghanaian Demographic and Health Survey. A backward stepwise multivariate logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationships after adjusting for child age and key confounders (n = 1101). Primiparous women with planned pregnancies had a significantly greater median duration of breast-feeding than their counterparts whose pregnancies were unintended (21.1 vs. 18.5 mo, respectively). Among multiparous women, median breast-feeding duration was similar in both groups (21.5 vs. 21 mo). Findings are consistent with results previously reported in other cultures and may have implications for breast-feeding promotion programs.

KEY WORDS: • Africa • breast-feeding • parity • pregnancy intention

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