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• Posted August 10, 2026

Working At Home Makes Breastfeeding Harder, Not Easier, Study Says

Working from home won’t necessarily help a new mother breastfeed, a new study says.

Mothers who worked from home had lower breastfeeding rates than those working outside the home, researchers reported recently in the Western Journal of Nursing Research.

Surprisingly, stay-at-home moms reported the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding. Researchers attributed the lower breastfeeding rates to a lack of formal support for mothers at home.

“The data reveal that work engagement — not just where the work is done — is what truly matters,” lead researcher Natsuko Wood said in a news release. She is an assistant professor of nursing at Washington State University in Spokane.

“Caring for an infant is a rewarding but demanding job, and performing paid work is equally demanding,” Wood said. “Juggling both creates a compound workload for mothers. True support requires institutional backing, structured breastfeeding support and clear workplace boundaries, regardless of a mother’s physical work location.”

For the study, researchers tracked 81 new mothers between June 2022 and August 2023 during the first 24 weeks after birth.

Current guidelines recommend breastmilk exclusively for the first six months of a baby's life,  followed by continued breastfeeding alongside solid foods for two years or more. 

However, only about 30% of U.S. mothers maintain exclusive breastfeeding by six months, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Through the study, the team found that by the 24-week mark — or about 5.5 months — work-at-home mothers reported lower rates of breastfeeding than mothers working outside of the home. 

About 70% of moms working outside the home were still exclusively breastfeeding, compared to 60% of moms working from home.

Only 37% of stay-at-home mothers were still exclusively breastfeeding.

“Many people assume stay-at-home mothers to have the highest breastfeeding probability because they have constant physical proximity to their infants,” Wood said.

“However, our findings reveal a hidden vulnerability,” she added. “Stay-at-home mothers are constantly working at home without a paycheck, managing continuous household and childcare demands 24/7 that lack the built-in boundaries, set hours or formal recognition found in jobs outside the home.”

Researchers said the blurred boundaries of working from home, combined with high cognitive loads of meeting deadlines or leading projects, negatively affected breastfeeding success.  

Workplace support, no matter where an employee works, could help improve breastfeeding rates for mothers and babies.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about breastfeeding benefits.

SOURCE: Washington State University, news release, Aug. 4, 2026