Impact of Maternal Nutritional Status on Lactational Amenorrhea in India: A Regional Analysis

Laxmi Kant Dwivedi, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)

The main objective of this paper is to examine the linkages between maternal nutritional status and postpartum amenorrhea among currently breastfeeding women in India and its regions. Women who were not pregnant, who were breastfeeding and who were not using any hormonal contraceptives were included in the analysis. Using NFHS-2 data, analyses were adjusted for confounders including breast-feeding behaviour, child nutritional status, maternal and child age. Socioeconomic status of women was found to be inversely associated with lactational amenorrhea. The median duration of PPA was significantly longer for mal-nourished women in northern, eastern, western and southern regions. The effect of maternal nutritional status on lactational amenorrhea was insignificant when women have been breastfeeding since last 12 months. However, after 12 months of breast-feeding, the probability of undernourished women to remain amenorrheic was likely to be greater and this trend was highly consistent across all six regions included in the analysis.