Breastfeeding in Context: African American Women’s Normative Referents, Salient Identities, and Perceived Social Norms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe social norms and salient social identities related to breastfeeding intentions among African American mothers in Washington, D.C. Five focus groups were held with 30 mothers who gave birth to a child between 2016 and 2019. Two coders conducted pragmatic thematic analysis. This study demonstrated that women hold different identities relevant to making infant feeding decisions, with mother being primary and race/ethnicity, age, and relationship status factoring into how they define themselves. Mothers drew their perceptions of what is common and accepted from family, friends, the “Black community,” and what they perceived visually in their geographic area and heard from their health care providers. Mothers believed breastfeeding to be increasing in popularity and acceptability in African American communities in Washington, D.C., but not yet the most common or accepted mode of feeding, with some variability by socioeconomic status group. Implications for public health communication and social marketing are discussed.

Development, psychometric assessment, and predictive validity of a breastfeeding subjective norms scale among an Australian prospective cohort of first‐time parents

“…These findings suggest there are two key components of subjective norms among mothers and fathers in relation to breastfeeding initiation and duration. This is consistent with literature which suggests that subjective norms around breastfeeding in general are important influences on breastfeeding (Swanson & Power, 2005; Zhang et al, 2018), and literature that suggests that others' perceptions around breastfeeding in public may impact on decisions to breastfeed in public (Carlin et al, 2019; Spurles & Babineau, 2010; Villalobos et al, 2021). Thus, the inclusion of two components (in general and public breastfeeding) in the subjective norms scales will allow for a more nuanced understanding of the influence of significant others' perceptions of breastfeeding on a mothers' breastfeeding behaviour.…”

Maternity Care Practices and Breastfeeding Intentions at One Month Among Low-Income Women

“…Nonetheless, breastfeeding disparities exist, and cultural differences regarding beliefs and practices about breastfeeding are present. 6,9,29,30 Maternity care practices that account for these factors may have a larger impact on reducing disparities in breastfeeding outcomes for some racial or ethnic groups as has been seen with the implementation of Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices (CHAMPS) in the southeastern United States. 31 Several limitations of our study must be acknowledged.…”

Reliability and Validity of the German Version of the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS-G) and relations to breastfeeding duration and feeding method

“…breastfeeding mothers at work) changes that may have in uenced knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding (48). The removed Item 8 "Women should not breastfeed in public places such as restaurants" and Item 17 "A mother who occasionally drinks alcohol should not breastfeed" are embedded within social norms and cultural environment (49)(50)(51). These items usually evoke answers with little variance and poor t across many different cultures and are thus oftentimes removed in other translations (36, [41][42][43]47).…”