Relationship between Maternal Employment and 9-12 Month-Old Infants’ Growth Indexes in Ahwaz (2017)

  Background and Objectives: Child growth health is one of the most important issues that determines the community health. Considering the importance of mothers in family and healthy society, the aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between maternal employment status and infant growth during the 9-12 months in Ahwaz.   Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 345 nine-month infants of three groups of mothers including full time employees, part-time employees, and homemakers were selected using non-probability quotas sampling method. Data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed with the SPSS software version 22 using statistical tests such as chi-square, anova.   Results: In the full-time job group, 54.2% of the infants had favorable weights and 45.8% had unfavorable weights. In the part-time group, 69.6% of the infants had favorable weights and 30.4% had unfavorable weights. In the homemaker group, 68.7% of the infants had favorable weights and 31.3% had unfavorable weights. There was a significant difference in the infant’s weight between full-time and part-time job groups (P= 0.01) and the full-time job and homemaker group (P= 0.04) but there was no significant deference in the infant’s weight between the part-time job and homemaker group (P= 0.87). No significant association was found between maternal employment status and infant’s height (P= 0.11) and head circumference as well (0.08).   Conclusion: The growth status of infants with full-time working mothers was lower than that of infants with homemaker and part-time working mothers. It is recommended to reduce the working time of the mothers who have full-time jobs as long as they breastfeed their babies.