Association of breastfeeding cessation with health-related quality of life in working multiparous women of Rawalpindi and Islamabad

Breastfeeding rates in Pakistan are the lowest in South Asia. Multiparous working women in Rawalpindi-Islamabad often think if cessation of breastfeeding will affect their and their baby's health. A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted on 200 multiparous working women to evaluate the association between cessation of breastfeeding and health-related quality of life in multiparous working women and to determine the common reasons of breastfeeding cessation. A modified SF-36 QOL questionnaire was used. The mothers who breastfed their babies for less than or up to six months reported their general health worse at the time of study than one year ago, which accounts for 34(68%) of the entire data, 42(21%) women ceased to breastfeed their babies due to less milk production and 31 (15.5%) women due to the nature of their job. Chi-Square test showed that there is a significant association (i.e. p-value < 0.001) between health-related quality of life and early breastfeeding cessation.