Original articleA qualitative look into mother's breastfeeding experiences
Introduction
Breastfeeding provides numerous health benefits to both the mother and the nursing child. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all acknowledge breastfeeding as the preferred method of feeding for newborns and infants (American College of Obstretricians and Gyngecologists, 2007, Gartner et al., 2005; AAFP, 2008). Acknowledging the importance of breastfeeding for the future health of the newborn and mother, and bridging the health disparity gaps between racial and ethnic groups, the Healthy People 2020 document includes breastfeeding objectives. Even though all of the Healthy People 2010 objectives for breastfeeding were not met, the Healthy People committee further challenges mothers, healthcare providers, and the nation by increasing the breastfeeding goals for 2020 from that of 2010, and for the first time, including a target for exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months postpartum (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). The objectives for 2020 include an increase in the proportion of mothers who initiate breastfeeding from 75% to 81.9%, 60.6% continue breastfeeding at 6 months from the previous 50% and at 1 year from 25% to 34.1%, and exclusively breastfeeding at 3 months from 33.6% to 46.2% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). The Healthy People 2020 goals for exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months is 25.5% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010) in conformation to estimates by UNICEF that exclusively breastfeeding to 6 months postpartum could save about 1.5 million infant deaths (UNICEF, 1990).
While breastfeeding has health benefits for the baby and mother, it is necessary to have the support of others to help mothers reach their personal breastfeeding goals, as well as, meeting national goals. The support can come from two sources: clinical, social or both. Clinical support includes support via education, conversations, or instructions from clinical staff, which can be but not limited to: obstetricians, gynecologist, pediatricians, nurses, lactation consultants, midwives, peer counselors, and other professionals within the healthcare system. In the breastfeeding field, social support is identified as support from the baby's father, partner, peers, friends, family, co-workers, community members, and others that the mother identifies as having a personal relationship with. Social support from peers is reported as being beneficial because they share their experience and “are there for the mother” (Schmied et al., 2011). A study conducted in the UK showed that while clinical support is very important, mothers will not be able to successfully breastfeed if it is not accepted by people in their social circles, which includes family and friends (Brown et al., 2011). The support given by clinical staff to mothers can be very helpful in increasing confidence of the breastfeeding mothers, yet can also be a negative influence to the mother's confidence to breastfeed if she is not receiving positive or helpful support from a clinician (Brown et al., 2011, Sheehan et al., 2009). It is important to understand how both social and clinical support collectively influences American mothers decision to initiate and continue breastfeeding.
The purpose of the research project was to gain a holistic understanding of the breastfeeding experience of mothers, while identifying breastfeeding resources and support in the Athens-Clarke County and surrounding areas.
Section snippets
Study design
This was a qualitative study that employed in-depth interviews for data collection. The interviews were done from a phenomenological framework, which are to elicit the direct description of a particular situation or event as it is lived through without offering causal explanations or interpretive generalizations (Roulston, 2010). The study was conducted between December 2011 and June 2012 by a collaborative team of researchers from the University of Georgia, Northeast Georgia Health District
Results
A total of 21 mothers participated in the in-depth interviews. Twelve (12) of them were WIC recipients and recruited from the East Athens WIC Clinic, while the remaining nine were recruited from the Full Bloom Pregnancy and Early Parenting Center in Athens, Georgia. The average age of the informants from WIC was 26.8 (range: 22–40) years compared to an average age of 31.9 (range: 23–36) years for their Full Bloom counterparts. All nine mothers from Full Bloom had college education or higher
Clinical nursing implications
The mothers from the Athens-Clarke County area, both WIC and Full Bloom, shared valuable information that allows researchers and practitioners to identify the strengths and weaknesses of both social and clinical support systems/resources when it comes to breastfeeding promotion, support and protection. The findings from this study are important, in that understanding mothers' perspectives on the breastfeeding education, advice, and support that they either receive or do not receive from
Conflict of interest
There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Funding
Funding for this work was provided by the Community Breastfeeding Coalition of Athens, Georgia.
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