Adjusting to motherhood. The importance of BMI in predicting maternal well-being, eating behaviour and feeding practice within a cross cultural setting

“It's like giving him a piece of me.”: Exploring UK and Israeli women's accounts of motherhood and feeding

“…Since the issue of feeding was foremost in the experience of the mothers at the time of interview, the focus on feeding in relation to motherhood was very strong. Thus, for the purpose of this paper and as the first two topics were previously addressed via a quantitative study (Shloim et al, 2013(Shloim et al, , 2014, topics 3 and 4 were chosen for further development here. The ways in which motherhood was conceptualised by the sample varied from a somewhat ideal/always available mother to a burdened/overwhelmed mother.…”

“…Pregnant Israeli and UK women (N ¼ 152) were recruited between April 2011 and 2012, through posters and flyers in community centres and in private gynaecologists' clinics (Shloim et al, 2013(Shloim et al, , 2014. They completed questionnaires on self-esteem, body image and eating behaviours.…”

“…Thus questions addressed women's general feelings following pregnancy, eating/feeding behaviours and body satisfaction. The questions aimed to provide a more in-depth understanding of the experience of motherhood from pregnancy onwards to supplement previously conducted quantitative research (Shloim et al 2013(Shloim et al , 2014. Finally women were asked if motherhood is similar to what they expected it would be.…”

“…2013). Shloim, Rudolf, Feltbower, and Hetherington (2014) noted that mothers with higher levels of self-esteem, for example, reported higher levels of enjoyment of food for their infants. This study suggested that maternal wellbeing can influence infant feeding practice and even feeding traits of the infant.…”

“…Thus the present study set out to explore how Israeli and UK mothers integrate feeding into their conceptualisations of mothering 2-6 months postpartum. This study was nested within a larger study exploring maternal well-being, eating and feeding behaviours from pregnancy to the post-partum period (Shloim et al, 2013(Shloim et al, , 2014.…”