IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/reveho/v3y2005i3p315-335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Returning to Work After Childbirth Affect Breastfeeding Practices?

Author

Listed:
  • Pinka Chatterji
  • Kevin Frick

Abstract

This study examines the effect of the timing and intensity of returning to work after childbirth on the probability of initiating breastfeeding and the number of weeks of breastfeeding. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Baseline probit models and family-level fixed effects models indicate that returning to work within 3 months is associated with a reduction in the probability that the mother will initiate breastfeeding by 16–18%. Among those mothers who initiate breastfeeding, returning to work within 3 months is associated with a reduction in the length of breastfeeding of 4–5 weeks. We find less consistent evidence that working at least 35 h per week (among mothers who return to work within 3 months) detracts from breastfeeding. Future research is needed on understanding how employers can design policies and workplaces that support breastfeeding. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Pinka Chatterji & Kevin Frick, 2005. "Does Returning to Work After Childbirth Affect Breastfeeding Practices?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 315-335, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:3:y:2005:i:3:p:315-335
    DOI: 10.1007/s11150-005-3460-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11150-005-3460-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11150-005-3460-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. Nelson, Charles R & Startz, Richard, 1990. "The Distribution of the Instrumental Variables Estimator and Its t-Ratio When the Instrument Is a Poor One," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 125-140, January.
    3. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    4. Fein, S.B. & Roe, B., 1998. "The effect of work status on initiation and duration of breast-feeding," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(7), pages 1042-1046.
    5. Brian Roe & Leslie Whittington & Sara Fein & Mario Teisl, 1999. "Is there competition between breast-feeding and maternal employment?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(2), pages 157-171, May.
    6. Jacob Alex Klerman & Arleen Leibowitz, 1994. "The Work-Employment Distinction among New Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(2), pages 277-303.
    7. Blau, Francine D & Grossberg, Adam J, 1992. "Maternal Labor Supply and Children's Cognitive Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 474-481, August.
    8. Kenneth Bollen & David Guilkey & Thomas Mroz, 1995. "Binary outcomes and endogenous explanatory variables: Tests and solutions with an application to the demand for contraceptive use in tunisia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(1), pages 111-131, February.
    9. Jane Waldfogel & Wen-Jui Han & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, 2002. "The effects of early maternal employment on child cognitive development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 369-392, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anita Kottwitz & Anja Oppermann & C. Katharina Spiess, 2016. "Parental leave benefits and breastfeeding in Germany: effects of the 2007 reform," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 859-890, December.
    2. Resul Cesur & Joseph J. Sabia & Inas Rashad Kelly & Muzhe Yang, 2017. "The effect of breastfeeding on young adult wages: new evidence from the add health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 25-51, March.
    3. Miki Kobayashi & Emiko Usui, 2017. "Breastfeeding practices and parental employment in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 579-596, June.
    4. Julie P. Smith & Sara Javanparast & Ellen McIntyre & Lyn Craig & Kate Mortensen & Colleen Koh, 2013. "Discrimination against breastfeeding mothers in childcare," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 65-90.
    5. Baker, Michael & Milligan, Kevin, 2008. "Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: Evidence from maternity leave mandates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 871-887, July.
    6. Bidisha Mandal & Brian Roe & Sara Fein, 2014. "Work and breastfeeding decisions are jointly determined for higher socioeconomic status US mothers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 237-257, June.
    7. Iryna Topolyan & Xu Xu, 2019. "Beliefs about the Benefits of Breastfeeding: Formation and Effects on Breastfeeding Intention and Persistence," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 31(2), pages 143-164, July.
    8. Demir, Firat & Ghosh, Pallab & Liu, Zexuan, 2020. "Effects of motherhood timing, breastmilk substitutes and education on the duration of breastfeeding: Evidence from Egypt," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Thuan Q. Thai & Mikko Myrskylä, 2012. "Rainfall shocks, parental behavior and breastfeeding: evidence from rural Vietnam," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2012-009, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    10. Bar-El, Ronen & Hatsor, Limor & Tobol, Yossef, 2020. "Home production, market substitutes, and the labor supply of mothers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 378-390.
    11. Frédéric Dutheil & Grégory Méchin & Philippe Vorilhon & Amanda C. Benson & Anne Bottet & Maëlys Clinchamps & Chloé Barasinski & Valentin Navel, 2021. "Breastfeeding after Returning to Work: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-21, August.
    12. Rachel Gordon & Robert Kaestner & Sanders Korenman, 2007. "The effects of maternal employment on child injuries and infectious disease," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 307-333, May.
    13. Julia Hatamyar, 2022. "Workplace Breastfeeding Legislation and Female Labor Force Participation in the United States," Papers 2209.05916, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pinka Chatterji & Sara Markowitz, 2008. "Family Leave after Childbirth and the Health of New Mothers," NBER Working Papers 14156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Pinka Chatterji, 2006. "Illicit drug use and educational attainment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 489-511, May.
    3. Chatterji, Pinka & Alegria, Margarita & Takeuchi, David, 2011. "Psychiatric disorders and labor market outcomes: Evidence from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 858-868.
    4. Pinka Chatterji & Sara Markowitz, 2005. "Does the Length of Maternity Leave Affect Maternal Health?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(1), pages 16-41, July.
    5. Pinka Chatterji & Margarita Alegría & Mingshan Lu & David Takeuchi, 2007. "Psychiatric disorders and labor market outcomes: evidence from the National Latino and Asian American Study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(10), pages 1069-1090, October.
    6. Pinka Chatterji & Sara Markowitz, 2000. "The Impact of Maternal Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use on Children's Behavior Problems: Evidence from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey..," NBER Working Papers 7692, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Anita Kottwitz & Anja Oppermann & C. Katharina Spiess, 2016. "Parental leave benefits and breastfeeding in Germany: effects of the 2007 reform," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 859-890, December.
    8. Mwabu, Germano, 2008. "The Production of Child Health in Kenya: A Structural Model of Birth Weight," Working Papers 52, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    9. Pinka Chatterji & Jeff DeSimone, 2005. "Adolescent Drinking and High School Dropout," NBER Working Papers 11337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Michael T. French & M. Christopher Roebuck & Pierre Kébreau Alexandre, 2001. "Illicit Drug Use, Employment, and Labor Force Participation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(2), pages 349-368, October.
    11. Pinka Chatterji & Margarita Alegría & Mingshan Lu & David Takeuchi, 2007. "Psychiatric disorders and labor market outcomes: evidence from the National Latino and Asian American Study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(10), pages 1069-1090.
    12. Manuel Denzer & Constantin Weiser, 2021. "Beyond F-statistic - A General Approach for Assessing Weak Identification," Working Papers 2107, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    13. Chatterji, Pinka & Markowitz, Sara, 2001. "The impact of maternal alcohol and illicit drug use on children's behavior problems: evidence from the children of the national longitudinal survey of youth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 703-731, September.
    14. Berger, Lawrence & Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne & Paxson, Christina & Waldfogel, Jane, 2008. "First-year maternal employment and child outcomes: Differences across racial and ethnic groups," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 365-387, April.
    15. Chatterji, Pinka, 2006. "Does alcohol use during high school affect educational attainment?: Evidence from the National Education Longitudinal Study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 482-497, October.
    16. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Chris Ryan & Ana Sartbayeva, 2009. "Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behaviour of Young People," CEPR Discussion Papers 604, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    17. Milo Bianchi & Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Pinotti, 2012. "Do Immigrants Cause Crime?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1318-1347, December.
    18. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond, 2000. "GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-340.
    19. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John, 1997. "Health and wages: Evidence on men and women in urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 159-185, March.
    20. Claire Dujardin & Florence Goffette-Nagot, 2009. "Does public housing occupancy increase unemployment?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(6), pages 823-851, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    breastfeeding; maternal employment; maternity leave; 112;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:3:y:2005:i:3:p:315-335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.