Abstract
Background:
Many female people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) are in childbearing age; however, only few data exist about the situation of breastfeeding in pwMS.
Objective:
Our study analyzed breastfeeding rate and duration, reasons for weaning, and the impact of disease severity on successful breastfeeding in pwMS.
Methods:
The study included pwMS giving birth within 3 years before study participation. Data were collected by structured questionnaire.
Results:
Compared to published data, we found a significant difference (p = 0.0007) between the nursing rate in the general population (96.6%) and females with MS (85.9%). However, a higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding could be observed in our study population for 5–6 months in 40.6% of pwMS versus 9% for 6 months in the general population. In contrast, total breastfeeding duration in our study population was shorter (18.8% for 11–12 months) than in the general population (41.1% for 12 months). Reasons for weaning were predominantly (68.7%) related to breastfeeding barriers based on MS. No significant impact of prepartum or postpartum education on the breastfeeding rate could be observed. Prepartum relapse rate and prepartum disease-modifying drugs had no effect on breastfeeding success.
Conclusion:
Our survey provides an insight into the situation of breastfeeding in pwMS in Germany.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
