Breastfeeding (Exclusive)
This indicator reports the percentage of mothers who exclusively breastfeed their infants during their post-partum hospital stay. This indicator is relevant because breastfeeding has positive health benefits for both infants and mothers and may lower infant mortality rates.
Source
Source Description
The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), funded and directed by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), is designed to provide annual national and state-level information on the health and well-being of children ages 0-17 years in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau administers the survey, oversees the sampling, and produces a final data set of survey results. HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) develops survey content in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and a Technical Expert Panel. The Technical Expert Panel consists of experts in survey methodology and children’s health, federal and state stakeholders, clinicians and researchers. In 2016, the NSCH underwent a significant redesign which combined content from both the NSCH and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). Further information on that redesign can be found in “The Design and Implementation of the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health”. The NSCH is conducted as a household survey, and one child per household is selected to be the subject for the detailed age-specific questionnaire. The respondent to this questionnaire is a parent or guardian who is living in the home and has knowledge of the sampled child. Survey participants complete either web-based or self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Data from the NSCH is used for scientific research, federal policy and program development, and state-level planning and performance reporting. Information is collected on factors related to the health and well-being of children, including access to and utilization of health care, receipt of care in a medical home, systems of care for CSHCN, family interactions, parental health, school and after-school experiences, and neighborhood characteristics. More information about the survey can be found in the “About the National Survey of Children’s Health” and HRSA’s MCHB website.
Methodology
Indicator percentages are acquired from analysis of survey data from the 2011-12 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). Values are based on parents’ valid survey responses to the following question: “Was [child name] ever breastfed or fed breast milk?”; “How old was [S.C.] when [he/she] was first fed formula?”; and “How old was [S.C.] when [he/she] was first fed anything other than breast milk or formula?” A child was considered exclusively breastfed if he or she was only fed breast milk during the first 6 months of life (or beyond). Survey data are supplied by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC). Raw survey data files were pre-processed by CAHMI. Pre-processing included the addition of weights to each survey response to reflect the total state population, including non-respondents, and imputation of certain variables, like body mass index (BMI). Percentages are estimated from the raw survey data using the following formula:
Additional detailed information about the NSCH, including questionnaires, data collection procedures, and raw data files are available from the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health.
Data Breakouts Available
- Children by Race and Hispanic Ethnicity, Percent Exclusively Breastfed
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