Association Between Maternal Work and Exclusive Breastfeeding in Countries of Latin America and Caribbean

Objective The aim of this study was to estimate the association between individual and contextual characteristics related to maternal work and exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Methods A cross-sectional study, conducted with data from the Demographic and Health Survey of Bolivia (2008), Brazil (2006), Colombia (2010), the Dominican Republic (2007), Guatemala (2015), Haiti (2017), Honduras (2011) and Peru (2011). The sample included infants who were under 6 months of age and their mothers. The outcome was EBF (yes/no), individual predictors were maternal employment status (employed/not employed), type of occupation, and type of employment (formal/informal), and contextual predictors were gross domestic product, maternity leave, and percentage of women in the labor force. The association between maternal employment status and EBF was performed using multilevel Poisson analysis adjusted for maternal education level, presence of partner, place of residence, maternal age, type of childbirth, primiparity, wealth index and breastfeeding in the first hour of life. Results The prevalence of EBF was 58.0% in Bolivia, 41.1% in Brazil, 39.2% in Colombia, 7.6% in the Dominican Republic, 50.8% in Guatemala, 39.7% in Haiti, 31.1% in Honduras, and 68.1% in Peru. The percentage of employed women ranged from 19.1% in the Dominican Republic to 46.1% in Bolivia. Maternal employment was negatively associated with EBF (Prevalence Ratio [PR] = 0.77; 95% CI 0.73, 0.82), while the highest percentage of women in the labor force of the country was positively associated with EBF (PR = 1.03; 95% CI 1.01, 1.06), with an increase in the PR value after the inclusion of gross domestic product in the model. Conclusions The prevalence of EBF was lower in infants whose mothers were employed. However, the prevalence of EBF was higher in countries with a larger percentage of women in the labor force.