ABSTRACT
This is a study of patients who attended the antenatal clinic and were admitted to the service ward, Siriraj Hospital. There were 2,503 mothers who were contacted by phone. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding at 7 days, 1 months, 4 months and 6 months postpartum in this group was 83.4%, 69.5%, 33.1% and 18.6%, respectively. Some mothers stopped breastfeeding: 2.3% at 7 days, 6.1% at 1 month, 36.1% at 4 months and 61.3% at 6 months. The reasons for using artificial feeding or breastfeeding plus artificial feeding were classified into two periods. The reasons for the 7 day and 1 month periods were insufficient milk production (8.9% and 13.1%, respectively) and mothers having to work (4.6% and 14.8%, respectively). Reasons for the 4 month periods were 51.6% and 69.0% of mothers having to work. All mothers in this group were willing to breastfed their babies because they received knowledge and nipple preparation from the antenatal clinic. Some mothers stopped breastfeeding during early postpartum because of socioeconomic and social problems. However, 38.7% of mothers practiced full or partial breastfeeding at 6 month postpartum.