Smoking and breastfeeding status.

In women who breastfeed, cigarette smoking is associated with early termination of lactation. The relationship among smoking, demographic variable, and breastfeeding status at 8 weeks postpartum was examined in 400 mothers of term infants and 110 mothers of low-birth-weight (LBW) infants using multivariate analysis. Women who smoked were more apt to stop breastfeeding early in both study samples. In addition, in the term sample, older and married women more frequently reported breastfeeding at 8 weeks than younger, nonmarried women. In the LBW sample, those who were employed were less apt to report breastfeeding at 8 weeks than those who were unemployed. Also, a greater proportion of smokers in both samples indicated insufficient milk as a reason for a decline in breastfeeding compared to nonsmokers. The effects of cigarette smoking should be examined in subsequent studies of breastfeeding patterns.