Table 5.
Characteristics of Mothers Who Provided and Did Not Provide Breastmilk in the Hospital
| Provided breastmilk in the hospital n=171 |
Did not provide breastmilk in the hospital n=60 |
|
|---|---|---|
| % (n) | % (n) | |
| Maternal race and ethnicity | ||
| White, Hispanic, or Asian | 22.8 (39) | 13.3 (8) |
| Black non-Hispanic | 77.2 (132) | 86.7 (52) |
| Marital status** | ||
| Not married | 61.2 (104) | 87.9 (51) |
| Married | 38.8 (66) | 12.1 (7) |
| Public assistance | ||
| Not receiving public assistance | 81.9 (140) | 73.3 (44) |
| Receiving public assistance | 18.1 (31) | 26.7 (16) |
| Parity* | ||
| First-time mother | 61.2 (104) | 40.7 (24) |
| Not a first-time mother | 38.8 (66) | 59.3 (35) |
| Study recruitment | ||
| From North Carolina | 63.7 (109) | 71.7 (43) |
| From Illinois | 36.3 (62) | 28.3 (17) |
| Infant sex | ||
| Female | 55.9 (95) | 50.0 (30) |
| Male | 44.1 (75) | 50.0 (30) |
| Infant size for gestational age | ||
| Large | 2.3 (4) | 0.0 (0) |
| Appropriate | 77.8 (133) | 88.1 (52) |
| Small | 19.9 (34) | 11.9 (7) |
| Infant birth | ||
| Was a singleton | 80.7 (138) | 86.7 (52) |
| Was a multiple | 19.3 (33) | 13.3 (8) |
| Infant infections | ||
| None | 23.4 (40) | 20.3 (12) |
| One or more | 76.6 (131) | 79.7 (47) |
| Necrotizing enterocolitis | ||
| Not present | 86.5 (147) | 83.1 (49) |
| Present | 13.5 (23) | 16.9 (10) |
| Intraventricular hemorrhage | ||
| Not present | 67.3 (115) | 67.8 (40) |
| Present | 32.7 (56) | 32.2 (19) |
| KC** | ||
| Not practiced | 41.0 (48) | 68.3 (41) |
| Practiced | 59.0 (69) | 31.7 (19) |
| M (SD) | M (SD) | |
| Education in years* | 13.7 (2.3) | 12.6 (2.1) |
| Age in years | 27.5 (6.2) | 25.9 (5.9) |
| Maternal psychological wellbeing at enrollment | ||
| Depressive symptoms | 15.9 (11.1) | 17.6 (12.5) |
| State anxiety | 40.6 (13.3) | 41.6 (13.4) |
| Post-traumatic stress symptoms | 4.6 (3.3) | 4.6 (3.4) |
| Worry about child | 19.9 (7.2) | 20.1 (9.5) |
| NICU parenting stress: Infant illness | 42.9 (21.6) | 40.7 (21.2) |
| NICU parenting stress: Parental role alteration | 34.6 (13.9) | 34.9 (14.3) |
| Gestational age in weeks | 27.0 (2.9) | 27.8 (3.0) |
| Apgar at 1 minute | 5.0 (2.5) | 5.5 (2.5) |
| Apgar at 5 minutes | 7.2 (1.6) | 7.5 (1.7) |
| Head circumference at birth in centimeters | 24.6 (2.7) | 25.1 (2.7) |
| Length at birth in centimeters | 35.5 (4.2) | 36.5 (4.1) |
| Birth weight in grams | 993.9 (329.0) | 1067.0 (232.1) |
| Mechanical ventilation in days | 17.1 (28.5) | 13.2 (17.3) |
| Number of surgeries | 0.7 (1.3) | 0.6 (1.2) |
| Neurobiological risk score | 4.0 (3.7) | 3.9 (3.9) |
Note. Between-group differences were tested using Chi-Square, with infant size for gestational age tested using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenzel Test for proportions. Between-group mean differences were tested using t-tests, with the exception of mechanical ventilation that was tested with a nonparametric Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test due to a non-normal distribution.
*
p<.01
**
p<.001