Exploring the Emotional Breastfeeding Experience of First-Time Mothers: Implications for Healthcare Support

Giannì, Maria Lorella; Lanzani, Marta; Consales, Alessandra; Bestetti, Giovanna; Colombo, Lorenzo; Bettinelli, Maria Enrica; Plevani, Laura; Morniroli, Daniela; Sorrentino, Gabriele; Bezze, Elena; Zanotta, Lidia; Sannino, Patrizio; Cavallaro, Giacomo; Villamor, Eduardo; Marchisio, Paola; Mosca, Fabio

doi:10.3389/fped.2020.00199

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…As expected, the hazard of breastfeeding cessation was consistently highest over time when participants reported that health visitor support was both informationally and emotionally unhelpful or absent. Typically, the literature has focused on the importance of informational support from health visitors for increasing breastfeeding durations [22,38,47,48]. However, informational support from health visitors is not always considered helpful by recipients for a range of reasons [10,28,29] and these results suggest that experiencing health care professionals as emotionally supportive despite this can improve breastfeeding durations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, informational support from health visitors is not always considered helpful by recipients for a range of reasons [10,28,29] and these results suggest that experiencing health care professionals as emotionally supportive despite this can improve breastfeeding durations. Emotional support, in the form of providing encouragement, validation of difficult circumstances and judgement free support of a mother's infant feeding practices can go a long way [22,38]. In particular, in highincome settings like the UK where mothers often rely on expert parenting advice, receiving emotional support from HCP can be important facilitator of breastfeeding education enactment and empowerment [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By focusing on the promotion of the "…health benefits of breastfeeding as well as the risks of not breastfeeding" [15], mothers may feel both pressured to breast/chest-feed a lack of empathy, particularly if not wishing to or struggling to do so. A recent study found that 80% of participants experienced difficulty breastfeeding when they received greater informational than emotional support [38]. Emotional support has clear psychobiological pathways impacting lactation [39,40]; having emotional support present in conjunction with informational support is likely important in the positive reception and application of advice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

Chambers¹,

Myers²,

Emmott³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Social support in all forms is essential in maintaining breast/chest-feeding and helping to improve general infant feeding experience among parents. With breastfeeding durations notably short in the UK, the question of the effectiveness and quality of support for infant feeding comes to the fore. Current literature suggests that together inadequate informational support and poor/negative emotional support can lead to poor breastfeeding experiences and higher early cessation rates. Health visitors (community public health nurses) have been positioned as one of the primary providers of breast/chest-feeding support. This analysis tests the hypothesis that emotional support moderates the relationship between informational support and breastfeeding duration and infant feeding experience among UK mothers. Methods: Cox and binary logistic regression models are run on data from 565 UK mothers, collected as part of a 2017-2018 retrospective online UK survey on social support and infant feeding. Results: Informational support, compared to emotional support, was a less important predictor of both breastfeeding duration and experience. Supportive emotional support with unhelpful or absent informational support was associated with the lowest hazard of breastfeeding cessation before 3 months. Results for breastfeeding experience followed similar trends, where positive experience was associated with supportive emotional and unhelpful informational support. Negative experiences were less consistent; however, a higher probability of negative experience was found when both types of support were reported as unsupportive. Conclusions: Our study suggests the impact of informational support on breastfeeding provided by health visitors is influenced by emotional support. Improving resources and training to ensure health visitors are facilitated to provide enhanced emotional support, for example by lowering caseloads to allow for personalised care, may improve breastfeeding outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

Chambers¹,

Myers²,

Emmott³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The more mothers were exposed to information, the better their knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding [24]. For working mothers, they got more exposure to information about exclusive breastfeeding and it was obtained from magazines than other media [44,45].…”

Section: E Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Unsuccesful Exclusive Breastfeeding - A Scoping Review

Yunus

Ratrikaningtyas

Ernawati

2021

EJPHS

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Background: Globally, 40% of children under the age of 6 months are exclusively breastfed. The results of the Basic Health Research (RISKESDAS) in 2018, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants aged 0-6 months, it merely reached 37.3%. Purpose: To discover the factors that affected the failure of exclusive breastfeeding. Method: Scoping review adapted the Arskey and O'Malley framework, using a database from PubMed, Willey. and ScienceDirect. Finding: 21 articles out of 1563 selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Factors related to the failure of exclusive breastfeeding were divided into three factors, namely (1) sociodemographic factors consist of knowledge, occupation, age, environment and socio-culture, (2) health factors consist maternal parity, BMI, and psychological, (3) psychosocial factors consist of attitudes, breastfeeding intentions, family support, support from health workers and information obtained by the mother. Conclusion: The factors that most affected the failure of exclusive breastfeeding were the lack of family support for breastfeeding mothers, the support of passive health workers in providing information about exclusive breastfeeding and the work status of mothers who required mothers to work outside the home. In-depth research must be needed to find out the best strategy in increasing the achievement of exclusive breastfeeding. Article visualizations:<img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0892/a.php" alt="Hit counter" />

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“…By focusing on the promotion of the "… health benefits of breastfeeding as well as the risks of not breastfeeding" [15], mothers may feel both pressured to breast/chest-feed and a lack of empathy, particularly if they are not wishing to or struggling to do so. A recent prospective observational study of first-time mothers in Italy found that 80% of participants experienced difficulty breastfeeding when they received greater informational than emotional support [38]. Emotional support may reduce stress, which may improve breastfeeding outcomes via psychobiological pathways including lowering maternal cortisol levels leading to greater breastmilk supply/energy density [39,40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

et al. 2023

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Background Shorter breastfeeding duration is associated with detrimental consequences for infant health/development and maternal health. Previous studies suggest social support is essential in maintaining breast/chest-feeding and helping to improve general infant feeding experiences. Public health bodies therefore work to support breastfeeding in the UK, yet UK breastfeeding rates continue to be one of the lowest globally. With this, a better understanding of the effectiveness and quality of infant feeding support is required. In the UK, health visitors (community public health nurses specialising in working with families with a child aged 0–5 years) have been positioned as one of the key providers of breast/chest-feeding support. Research evidence suggests that both inadequate informational support and poor/negative emotional support can lead to poor breastfeeding experiences and early breastfeeding cessation. Thus, this study tests the hypothesis that emotional support from health visitors moderates the relationship between informational support and breastfeeding duration/infant feeding experience among UK mothers. Methods We ran cox and binary logistic regression models on data from 565 UK mothers, collected as part of a 2017–2018 retrospective online survey on social support and infant feeding. Results Informational support, compared to emotional support, was a less important predictor of both breastfeeding duration and experience. Supportive emotional support with unhelpful or absent informational support was associated with the lowest hazard of breastfeeding cessation before 3 months. Results for breastfeeding experience followed similar trends, where positive experience was associated with supportive emotional and unhelpful informational support. Negative experiences were less consistent; however, a higher probability of negative experience was found when both types of support were reported as unsupportive. Conclusions Our findings point to the importance of health visitors providing emotional support to bolster the continuation of breastfeeding and encourage a positive subjective experience of infant feeding. The emphasis of emotional support in our results encourages increased allocation of resources and training opportunities to ensure health visitors are able to provide enhanced emotional support. Lowering health visitors caseloads to allow for personalised care is just one actionable example that may improve breastfeeding outcomes in the UK.

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Exploring the Emotional Breastfeeding Experience of First-Time Mothers: Implications for Healthcare Support

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

Determinants of Unsuccesful Exclusive Breastfeeding - A Scoping Review

Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

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