The study population included 634,111 mothers who gave birth, of whom 54,476 (8.6%) had physical disabilities, 19,227 (3.0%) had sensory disabilities, 1048 (0.2%) had intellectual or developmental disabilities , 4,050 (0.6%) had multiple disabilities, and 555,310 (87.6%) had no disabilities.
Investigators found that patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities were less likely than those without disabilities to have the opportunity to initiate breastfeeding (adjusted relative risk). [aRR]. 90), and received assisted breastfeeding (aRR, 0.85) compared to non-disabled patients.
They also found that people with multiple disabilities were less likely to have the opportunity to initiate breastfeeding (aRR, 0.93), to engage in breastfeeding in hospital (aRR, 0.93), breastfeeding exclusively on discharge from hospital (aRR, 0.90), having skin-to-skin contact (aRR, 0.93) and benefiting from assisted breastfeeding (aRR, 0.95) compared to patients not disabled.
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