The determinants of early cessation of breastfeeding in Bangladesh.

Early cessation of breastfeeding is a cause of significant concern in many developing countries. Premature discontinuation of breastfeeding is known to be associated with avoidable childhood morbidity and mortality as well as high levels of parity and avoidable pregnancies. Using a publicly available demographic dataset from Bangladesh, we applied a life table and Cox's proportional hazard model to investigate the duration and predictors of breastfeeding. The observed mean duration of breastfeeding was 27.5 months regardless of the level of parity. The results showed that age, age at the time of marriage, religion, the level of education of the mother, the geographic region of residence, employment status, parity and the use of contraceptives are important predictors of early cessation of breastfeeding.