[Household costs of maintaining and/or abandoning exclusive breastfeeding during the first postpartum month].

Objective: Estimating the difference between direct and indirect family costs arising from women who continue exclusive breastfeeding and those who abandon it during the first postpartum month.

Methods: A cost analysis was carried out on primiparous women from Cali, Colombia; they were recruited during their immediate puerpery and follow-up during the first 30 postpartum days. Non-parametric Bootstrap techniques were used for estimating average costs and differences for 0-8, 9-30 and 0-30 postpartum days regarding women who abandoned exclusive breastfeeding and those who did not.

Results: Women who abandoned exclusive breastfeeding assumed higher costs related to baby feeding while those who continued exclusive breastfeeding had higher food costs for the mother and in contracting domestic support.

Conclusion: The savings which a woman and her family can make due to continuing with exclusive breastfeeding become negated by the mother's food-related costs. Interventions should be designed which are orientated towards prolonging exclusive breastfeeding and modifying beliefs about nutrition which contribute towards generating economic consequences for families.