The association between cesarean birth and breastfeeding initiation in Odisha, India: A mother fixed effects analysis

Abstract

Cesarean births are becoming more common in India, with health implications for both mothers and infants. Between 2005 and 2015, the proportion of cesarean births to total births in India roughly doubled, from 9% to 17%. We analyze Annual Health Survey data from the state of Odisha in eastern India. These population-level, longitudinal data on births between 2007 and 2011 allows us to estimate the association between cesarean birth and breastfeeding outcomes using mother fixed effects. Mother fixed effects allow comparisons of siblings born to the same mother who experienced different types of births (vaginal and cesarean). This empirical strategy controls for many potential observable and unobservable confounders in the relationship. Ordinary Least Squares linear probability models without mother fixed effects find that babies born by cesarean in Odisha are about 14 percentage points (p<0.001) more likely to experience delayed initiation of breastfeeding (that is, not being breastfed in the first 24 hours) compared with babies born vaginally. After introducing mother fixed effects, we find that babies born by cesarean are 11 percentage points more likely to (p<0.001) experience delayed initiation of breastfeeding. Because breastfeeding success is important for protecting against infectious disease in this context, future research should investigate whether cesarean birth impacts other aspects of breastfeeding as well.