Work, race and breastfeeding outcomes for mothers in the United States

Background: In the United States, mothers’ employment status and occupation are related to breastfeeding. However, it is unclear whether not working leads to longer breastfeeding duration even when compared to professional/managerial jobs, which tend to accommodate breastfeeding better than service/manual labor jobs. Furthermore, occupation and breastfeeding are racially patterned, and it is possible that race could moderate the relationships between mother’s work and breastfeeding. Methods: Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we modeled breastfeeding duration based on mother’s employment/occupation (not working, professional/managerial work, or service/labor work) during the first 6 months postpartum, as well as mother’s race (White, Black or other) and other potential confounders. We used zero-inflated negative binomial regression models and tested an interaction between employment/occupation type and race. Predictive margins were used to compare breastfeeding duration among subgroups. Results: Mothers working in service/labor occupations had the shortest breastfeeding duration of the three employment/occupation groups, and there was no significant difference in duration between not working and professional/managerial occupation. White mothers had longer breastfeeding duration than Black mothers on average. When we included an interaction between employment/occupation and race, we found that among White mothers, non-working mothers breastfed the longest, while mothers in service/labor work breastfed for the shortest duration, but among Black mothers, mothers in professional/managerial work breastfed for longer than mothers in the other two work categories. Discussion: Race moderated the relationship between employment status/occupation type and breastfeeding such that, for White mothers, not working was the most advantageous circumstance for breastfeeding, in line with traditional work-family conflict theory. In contrast, for Black mothers, professional/managerial work was the most advantageous circumstance. These findings support the idea of the Market-Family Matrix, which allows that different work scenarios may be more or less advantageous for parenting behaviors like breastfeeding, depending on mothers’ circumstances.