Effect of two types of hospital feeding gift packs on duration of breast-feeding among adolescent mothers.

Two hundred forty-four adolescent mothers under 18 years of age were surveyed during a 15-month period, and 53% elected to breast-feed. A subset of 60 primiparous breast-feeding adolescents were enrolled in an investigator-blind, randomized, prospective study to compare the effects on breast-feeding duration of a standard hospital discharge feeding gift pack containing formula and a specially designed study pack that was free of infant formula. Thirty-five percent of the 60 women breast-fed less than 1 month; 22% nursed longer than 1 month but less than 2 months; and 43% breast-fed more than 2 months. There was no significant difference in breast-feeding duration among mothers by gift pack group, although those who received the study gift pack rated it higher in usefulness (p less than (0.025). The provision of infant formula samples did not appear to have a deleterious effect on the duration of breast-feeding among a population of adolescent mothers.