Breastfeeding initiation, duration, and experiences of mothers of late preterm twins: a mixed-methods study

Table 2 Comparison of breastfeeding progression, interventions, and behavior of late preterm twins (n = 44) and term twins (n = 82)

	LPT twins						Term twins
	1st week		1 month		4 months		1st week		1 month		4 months
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	P - value	P - value	P - value
Insufficient milk supply	11	52	9	43	8	38	19	48	15	38	14	35	0.764	0.701	0.815
Abundance of milk	4	19	4	19	2	10	9	23	2	5	3	8	0.715	0.078	0.789
Breast milk feeding
Exclusive	6	14	10	24	4	11	23	29	26	33	6	9	0.060	0.295	0.304
Partial	36	86	28	67	12	33	53	66	44	55	42	66	0.016	0.193	< 0.001
No	0	0	4	9	20	56	4	5	10	12	16	25	0.133	0.609	< 0.001
Methods for feeding (several methods optional)
Breast	41	98	37	88	16	44	76	95	68	85	48	75	0.412	0.645	< 0.001
Bottle	38	90	35	83	31	86	57	71	58	73	49	77	0.015	0.209	0.229
Finger feeding	6	14	0	0			17	21	3	4			0.337	0.181
Cup feeding	4	10	0	0			13	16	2	3			0.355	0.248
Supplemental nursing system	6	14	1	2			4	5	2	3			0.079	0.740
Feeding tube	3	7	0	0			0	0	0	0			0.016	> 0.05
Test weighing	24	57	7	17			36	45	6	8			0.201	0.127
Used a nipple shield	14	33	12	29	0	0	11	14	6	8	0	0	0.012	0.002	> 0.05
Pacifier use	29	67	39	93			34	43	68	85			0.011	0.193
Weak suck	24	57	13	31			24	30	10	13			0.003	0.015
Little stamina	36	86	19	45			44	55	21	26			< 0.001	0.031
Sleepy infant need to wake to drink	27	64	10	24			39	49	16	20			0.109	0.603
Started solids					25	57					34	53			0.669

ISSN: 1746-4358