Trends in the relationship between breastfeeding and postpartum employment in the United States

Abstract

It is widely assumed that employment and breastfeeding are relatively incompatible behaviors in the United States; yet recently both the incidence of breastfeeding and the incidence of postpartum employment increased. This paper examines the relationship between these trends from 1968–86 using data from the National Surveys of Family Growth. I find that these trends result from increases in the likelihood that a woman engages in both breastfeeding and postpartum employment. There has been an increase over time in the incidence and duration of women concurrently breastfeeding and working. However, the majority of employed women did not concurrently breastfeed, suggesting that conflicts between these behaviors still exist.