A helpful support strategy for mothers with respect to breastfeeding outcome is for health professionals to discuss the grandmother's perception of breastfeeding with the mother. It is important for perinatal caregivers to provide an environment that enables the family to stay together after delivery. A helpful support strategy for health professionals might be to mobilize grandmothers with positive breastfeeding perception to provide support for their daughters' breastfeeding.

Objectives. The objective of this study was to describe first-time mothers' experiences and reflections of their first birth. Study Design. This study is a part of a larger study which was carried out in southwestern Sweden in 2008. A qualitative method with content analysis was chosen for this study. The unit of data was 14 written narratives from the first-time mothers. Results. The theme “To be empowered increases first-time mothers' chances for a positive birth experience” crossed over into all the three categories: “To trust the body and to face the pain,” “Interaction between body and mind in giving birth,” and “Consistency of support.” Conclusion. In order to feel confident in their first childbirth, the women wanted to be confirmed and seen as unique individuals by the professionals and their partner. If professionals responded to the individual woman's needs of support, the woman more often had a positive birth experience, even if the birth was protracted or with medical complications.

The aim of this study was to describe the effects of sociodemographic factors and maternity ward practices on the duration of breastfeeding in Swedish primiparas (n = 194) and multiparas (n = 294), consecutively selected from hospital birth files for 3 months, who responded to a questionnaire 9 to 12 months after childbirth. The impact of sociodemographic data and maternity ward practices on exclusive and any breastfeeding were examined. Smoking and supplementation without medical reasons influenced the duration of both exclusive and any breastfeeding negatively, whereas early first breastfeeding influenced the duration of both exclusive and any breastfeeding positively, and parity had no significant influence. Late hospital discharge influenced the duration of exclusive breastfeeding positively, and higher maternal age influenced the duration of any breastfeeding positively. These variables altogether explained 11.4% (P < .001) of the variance in the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and 8.2% (P < .001) of the duration of any breastfeeding.

Process-oriented breastfeeding training made both antenatal midwives and postnatal nurses better disposed to breastfeeding; postnatal nurses in particular improved their attitudes. Attitudes to breastfeeding tended to be stable over time, but process-oriented training lowered the scores a little on the regulating scale, suggesting that after this kind of training counsellors would find it less necessary to schedule and control the mothers' breastfeeding behaviour.