ArticleSSM - population health2018
The best of intentions: Prenatal breastfeeding intentions and infant health.
Article in SSM - population health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Overcoming Barriers to Exclusive Breastfeeding in Lao PDR: Social Transfer Intervention Randomised Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2025Trial
- Does Functionality Appreciation Mediate the Relationship Between Breastfeeding Attitudes and Breastfeeding Intentions?Nutrients · 2026Article
- Defining and measuring maternal intentions and practices regarding infant feeding: a scoping review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Parent-Reported Feeding Difficulties and Speech and Language Development in Late Preterm Infants.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Predictors of exclusive breastfeeding intention among pregnant working-class women in Wakiso District, central Uganda: a cross-sectional study.International breastfeeding journal · 2025Article
- Psychological factors affecting breastfeeding during the perinatal period in the UK: an observational longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- Applying authoritative knowledge to better understand preparation for breastfeeding.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- "Figure it out or starve": The Impact of an Infant-Formula Shortage on Prenatal Infant Feeding Intentions.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Observational
- Breastfeeding Intentions among Pregnant Women Enrolled in a Healthy Start Program in Arkansas.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Article
- Investigating midwives and nurses reporting of 'infant feeding at hospital discharge': an online survey across NSW Australia.International breastfeeding journal · 2024Article
- Best for Whom? Heterogeneous Treatment Effects of Breastfeeding on Child Development.Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation · 2024Article
- Article
- Breastfeeding practices among immigrants living in Finland: Results from the FinChildren survey.Journal of migration and health · 2024Article
- Deficiencies in the Intentions, Attitudes, and Knowledge of Future Healthcare Professionals Regarding Breastfeeding.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Factors associated with intention to breastfeed in Vietnamese mothers: A cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Cross-cultural adaptation and content validation of the Infant Feeding Intentions Scale for Thai pregnant women.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Determinants of breastfeeding attitudes of mothers in Jordan: A cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Psychometric testing of the breastfeeding self-efficacy scale to measure exclusive breastfeeding in African American women: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Higher Rates of Cesarean Sections Found in Somali Immigrant Women in Minnesota.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2022Review
- Rooming-In and Breastfeeding Duration in First-Time Mothers in a Modern Postpartum Care Center.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Health organizations recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants for the first six months of life. The current study contributes to a growing body of research that examines whether the purported benefits of breastfeeding are causal. We systematically evaluated the role of an expectant mother's prenatal breastfeeding intentions, which reflect not only demographic characteristics, but also knowledge, attitudes, and social norms about infant feeding, and therefore serve as a proxy for positive maternal selection into breastfeeding. We used the Infant Feeding Practices Study (IFPS) II (n = 1008) to examine a heretofore overlooked group of mothers-those who intended to breastfeed but did not actually breastfeed. Results suggest that mothers who intended to breastfeed had infants with fewer ear infections and respiratory syncytial viruses, and used fewer antibiotics in the first year of life compared to infants whose mothers did not intend to breastfeed, irrespective of whether they actually breastfed. Because breastfeeding intention is a confounding characteristic that proxies for positive maternal selection and does not represent a causal mechanism for infant health, we further examined how mothers who intended to breastfeed differed from mothers who did not intend to breastfeed. Results suggest that mothers who intended to breastfeed had more knowledge about potential food contaminants and consulted more sources of information about nutrition and diet than mothers who did not intend to breastfeed. Taken together, our results underscore the need for new policy interventions aimed at improving infant health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.