Why do women stop breastfeeding?
The aim of this study was to describe the breastfeeding experience of a sample of Israeli women. A random telephone survey of women, aged between 25 and 42, who had children under the age of 18 and were resident in the Negev Region of Israel (N=302) was conducted. Women had an average of three children each (range 1-11) and most breasted for less than three months. The most common reason given for not breastfeeding or breastfeeding less than three months was ‘not enough milk’ (90/205; 44%). A four-factor solution was extracted from a factor analysis of the reasons that women gave for stopping breastfeeding before three months or for not initiating breastfeeding. The four factors were: personal concerns (body image, tired, return to work); need help (wants husband to help, child unwell, didn’t like breastfeeding), uncomfortable (nipple/breast pain, didn’t like breastfeeding) and not confident (not enough milk). Women most frequently report that they stopped breastfeeding because they ha
