Integrative Review of the Factors That Influence Fathers’ Involvement in the Breastfeeding of Their Infants

Father’s Knowledge, Attitude and Support to Mother’s Exclusive Breastfeeding Practices in Bangladesh: A Multi-Group Structural Equations Model Analysis

“…Although breastfeeding or EBF is the role which is primarily borne by mothers [ 21 ], fathers with proper EBF knowledge can greatly support mothers [ 31 ] in practicing EBF. This is because a father with proper relevant knowledge can encourage his wife/partner and enrich her knowledge for breastfeeding initiation and continuation [ 20 ]. Moreover, a mother’s breastfeeding attitude is often influenced by the relevant knowledge depth of their accompanying adults [ 22 ], while the father is deemed to accompany the mother for a long period.…”

“…It is always important that a father is actively involved in breastfeeding activities to ensure mothers’ EBF intention [ 21 ] and duration as per guidelines [ 20 , 21 ]. A father can offer several kinds of support to his breastfeeding partner/wife such as acquiring and sharing EBF knowledge, directly helping her to be comfortable while breastfeeding, indirect instrumental support by supporting household and baby care activities, emotional supports by valuing and praising the breastfeeding partner for her efforts and endeavors, and easing himself from placing demands that may hamper breastfeeding [ 18 , 21 , 33 ].…”

“…A father can offer several kinds of support to his breastfeeding partner/wife such as acquiring and sharing EBF knowledge, directly helping her to be comfortable while breastfeeding, indirect instrumental support by supporting household and baby care activities, emotional supports by valuing and praising the breastfeeding partner for her efforts and endeavors, and easing himself from placing demands that may hamper breastfeeding [ 18 , 21 , 33 ]. Appropriate supports from the father can help the mother to have more rest, be comfortable and draw more concentration on breastfeeding the baby, which improves the overall breastfeeding duration and exclusivity [ 20 ]. To be more specific, the fathers’ proper knowledge, positive attitude to EBF and activities to support breastfeeding associated activities enhance a mothers’ attitudes positively towards breastfeeding the baby [ 21 ].…”

“…In such a situation, researchers search for effective and efficient motivators of EBF practices in recent years. Researchers conducted different studies in many settings and geographic contexts and came up with different motivators of EBF practices such as mothers’ knowledge and attitude, fathers’ attitude, previous breastfeeding experience, self-confidence [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ] etc. However, fathers’ EBF knowledge, attitude, and support have rarely been studied in this regard, specifically in the case of Bangladesh.…”

Nursing students' knowledge and attitudes regarding brominated flame retardants from three Croatian universities

“…Additionally, studies have shown that fathers' positive attitudes related to knowledge regarding breastfeeding positively influenced overall breastfeeding success. Again, the role of the nurses has been emphasized [32]. Therefore, this paper proposes introducing teaching that hazards posed by infant exposure to BFRs in human milk are outweighed by benefits of breastfeeding to enable future nurses to counsel parents to avoid possible anxiety and confusion about breastfeeding.…”