The Effects of Women's Work on Breastfeeding in the Philippines, 1973-1983

Abstract

This chapter reports the results of a study on the effects of womens work on breast feeding in the Philippines between 1973 and 1983. In particular it describes the patterns of breast feeding and then tests the relative effects of selected population characteristics and structural-behavioral changes on trends in breast feeding extent and duration. The data for this research were collected as part of the 1973 and 1983 National Demographic Surveys of the Philippines with subsamples of 3573 and 5396 ever-married women and children respectively. From 1973-1983 the extent of ever breast feeding decreased by approximately 5% from 88.9 to 83.5%. Residents of Manila and Mindanao and women with clerical and sales transitional occupations showed the greatest declines in breast feeding over the period; women with high education levels or professional occupations were actually more likely to breast feed in 1983 than were similar groups in 1973. On the average the median age of the infant at which breast feeding ceased remained constant from 1973 to 1983. Relatively large increases in the duration of lactation occurred between 1973 and 1983 and for Visayan residents women with 10 or more years of education and women with traditional occupations. The increase for these subgroups occurred because they were more likely to breast feed their infants past the 1st year of life in 1983 than were similar groups in 1973. Most increases or decreases in breast feeding probabilities that had large impacts on the estimated duration of breast feeding took place during the 2nd year of the infants life. The notable exception to this pattern is that infants whose mothers were residents of rural areas were more likely to be breast fed at 5 months of age in 1983 than were similar group members in 1973. In general the longer duration of breast feeding into the 2nd year is expected to have only small health and demographic effects. In contrast in urban areas the decreased duration of breast feeding in 1983 resulted from reduced breast feeding during the 1st year of life.