IntroductionBreastfeeding-friendly worksites are associated with longer breastfeeding durations, yet currently there is a dearth of research exploring women's experiences of workplace-based wellness programs designed to support continued lactation.MethodUsing semi-structured interviews with a voluntary sample of participants from one rural New England town (N = 18), we examined women's experiences of returning to work at worksites with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Worksite Health ScoreCard (HSC) “breastfeeding-friendly” designation.ResultsFive key themes emerged from participants' narratives; three policy and workplace climate-related themes are described.DiscussionCollectively, findings indicate areas where HSC lactation-support questions might be modified to more precisely identify the psychosocial, structural, and sociocultural needs of breastfeeding employees.
Objective: Hair cortisol is a noninvasive, long-term biomarker of human stress. Strengths and weaknesses of this biomarker as a proxy measure of perinatal stress are not yet well understood. Hair cortisol data were collected from pregnant women in Puerto Rico to investigate maternal cortisol level variance across pregnancy. Methods: In 2017, we recruited 86 pregnant women planning to birth at a large urban hospital. We aimed to collect four hair samples from each participant, one in each trimester and one in the postpartum period.Results: Median cortisol in the first trimester (n = 82) was 5.7 picograms/ milligram (pg/mg) (range: 1.0-62.4). In the second, third, and postpartum periods, the medians were 6.8 pg/mg (1.0-69.5), (n = 46), 20.1 pg/mg (5.6-89.0), (n = 30), and 14.1 pg/mg (1.7-39.8), (n = 9), respectively. These medians disguise a 10-fold and 50-fold variability for two participants. Our sample sizes declined sharply when Hurricane Maria caused major disruptions in services and participants' lives.
Conclusion:Maternal hair cortisol concentrations were lower in the first and second trimester than the third trimester and early postpartum period. We also observed a wide range of variation in cortisol levels throughout pregnancy and in the postpartum period.
IntroductionMaintaining lactation after returning to work is imperative for overall breastfeeding success, yet mothers who return to full-time employment outside the home are unlikely to meet their breastfeeding goals. Breastfeeding-friendly worksites are one potential solution.MethodUsing semi-structured interviews with employees in one rural New England town (N = 18), we aimed to better understand the barriers and supports to continued lactation at “breastfeeding-friendly” worksites.ResultsFive key themes emerged from participants' narratives; two built environment-focused themes are discussed here.DiscussionFindings expose the disproportionate burden placed on women when care- and wage-work are combined, even in worksites at least theoretically committed to supporting lactation following a return to work.
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