Table 2.

Numbers and rates of breastfeeding women (either partial or exclusive) at 4–6 weeks, 12 weeks and 26 post partum for the study population, the historical reference cohort and the general population

	PreCARA cohort n=171	Historical reference cohort (PARA) n=249	General population n=32 532*
Weeks 4–6, n (%)	103 (60.2)	108 (43.4)†	11 152 (59)
Week 12, n (%)	68 (39.8)	65 (26.1)†	7 731 (41)
Week 26, n (%)	45 (26.3)	23 (9.2)†	4 205 (28)

*Not all 32 532 participants were available at each time point: 18 928 participants were available at weeks 4–6, 18 620 at week 12 and 15 281 at week 26.

†P value <0.001 compared with the PreCARA cohort.

PARA, Pregnancy-iinduced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis; PreCARA, Preconceptional Counselling in Active Rheumatoid Arthritis.