To asses the short- and medium-term breastfeeding effects on women´s postpartum health a prospective cohort study was performed with a base-line questionnaire at 1-5 days post partum and a follow-up questionnaire at 5-6 months pp. The sample consisted of two groups: the formula-feeding group (n = 15) and the breastfeeding group (n = 69). 1-5 days after delivery painful perineum (44.2%), backache (24.4%) and sore nipples (23.3%) were the most common complaints in the total sample whereas 5-6 months after delivery tiredness/ exhaustion (49.4%), haemorrhoids (27.7%) and painful perineum (24.1%) were on top of the list of complaints. During the first five days after delivery 28.6% of the whole breastfeeding group had sore nipples, at month 5-6 this proportion had raised to 34.8%. A large proportion (20.3%) of the breastfeeding group developed mastitis in the five months after delivery. Increase of complaints within the first 5-6 months after delivery tended to be higher in the breastfeeding group. Women who continued breastfeeding and introduced complementary foods within 5-6 months tended to have a worse subjective health status than the formula group and the group of exclusively breastfeeding mothers. In the Formula group the SOC-Score declined from 52.7 to 48.7. In the breastfeeding group the SOC-Score increased from 50.9 to 51.6. Besides wide spread health problems like exhaustion, haemorrhoids, painful perineum and backache, many breastfeeding women additionally have to deal with sore nipples and mastitis. On the other hand there is evidence that women can profit from breastfeeding in the sense of mastering a challenge, which is expressed in a higher SOC-Score comparing to formula feeding women.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uni-osnabrueck.de/oai:repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de:urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-2005092935 |
| Date | 29 September 2005 |
| Creators | Borrmann, Brigitte |
| Contributors | Prof. Dr. Beate Schücking, Prof. Dr. Petra Kolip |
| Source Sets | Universität Osnabrück |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis |
| Format | application/zip, application/pdf |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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