Does the use of pacifiers increase breastfeeding duration?

Breastfeeding has a number of benefits for both mother and baby, which
appear to increase with longer duration of breastfeeding. The use of pacifiers
has been negatively associated with shortened breastfeeding duration.
The aim of this review was to determine whether the use of pacifiers
actually shortens breastfeeding duration in infants. The Cochrane library,
Medline, CINAHL and Embase databases were searched for systematic
reviews, randomized controlled trials and cohort studies examining the
effect of pacifier use on breastfeeding duration. After applying appropriate
inclusion criteria only two cohort studies were identified. In one the
overall breastfeeding duration was longer in non pacifier-using infants
compared to those given pacifiers (10 months vs 7.5 months). The mean
breastfeeding duration in children who were given pacifiers before 6
weeks of age months was 168.5 days compared to 196.0 days for children
who had a pacifier introduced later or never. However, there is no
evidence to suggest any effect of occasional pacifier use, and it remains
unclear whether pacifiers are an independent causal factor for reducing
breastfeeding duration in infants.