Breast-feeding practices in a rural community.

The purpose of this study was to survey the breast-feeding practices in a rural community, and propose a relationship between certain demographic variables and length of the breast-feeding experience. A fairly homogenous sample of 55 women from the Toole returned the questionnaire. Two hypotheses were supported by the frequency data and chi-square analysis. These are: 1) there is an association between the total amount of education a woman had and the length of time she breast-fed her infant, and 2) the less formal and infant received the longer the time of breast-feeding. A relationship could not be proposed between length of breast-feeding and the variables of age, race, religion, economic status, marital status, previous breast-feeding. The data either did not provide adequate variation for analysis or did not support an existing relationship, Overwhelmingly, women who responded found breast-feeding enjoyable and received adequate support during the breast-feeding time.