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Maternal trait personality and breastfeeding duration: the importance of confidence and social support.

ABSTRACT: AIM: To explore associations among breastfeeding duration, maternal personality and maternal attitudes and experiences of breastfeeding. BACKGROUND: Understanding influences on breastfeeding initiation and duration is critical to increasing breastfeeding rates and supporting new mothers. Maternal characteristics such as self-efficacy, knowledge and confidence are known to enable women to breastfeed, but little is known about the influence of maternal trait personality on breastfeeding. DESIGN: An exploratory cross-sectional survey. METHOD: A total of 602 mothers with an infant aged 6-12 months old completed a self-report questionnaire examining maternal trait personality, breastfeeding duration and attitudes and experiences of breastfeeding. Data were collected between March-June 2009. RESULTS: Mothers who reported high levels of extraversion, emotional stability and conscientiousness were significantly more likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding for a longer duration. Attitudes and experiences significantly associated with these personality traits such as perceived difficulties and lack of support may explain these patterns. For example, characteristics associated with introversion and anxiety may prevent women from seeking support or challenging negative attitudes of others at this critical time. CONCLUSION: Understanding the influence of maternal personality may thus be a useful tool in antenatal support to recognize women who may need extra, directed support while facilitating discussion of potential barriers to breastfeeding.

SUBMITTER: Brown A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4114133 | biostudies-other | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Maternal trait personality and breastfeeding duration: the importance of confidence and social support.

Brown Amy A

Journal of advanced nursing 20130806 3

<h4>Aim</h4>To explore associations among breastfeeding duration, maternal personality and maternal attitudes and experiences of breastfeeding.<h4>Background</h4>Understanding influences on breastfeeding initiation and duration is critical to increasing breastfeeding rates and supporting new mothers. Maternal characteristics such as self-efficacy, knowledge and confidence are known to enable women to breastfeed, but little is known about the influence of maternal trait personality on breastfeedi ...[more]

PMID: 23919294

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Project description:BackgroundBreastfeeding has important positive long-term health consequences for infants and mothers. The World Health Organization recommends that all infants should be exclusively breastfed for six months or longer, and advises continuation of breastfeeding for two years or beyond. However, these recommendations are not met in many countries. This study examined whether a comprehensive, evidence-based breastfeeding intervention, the Breastfeeding Support Programme (BSP), promotes prolonged duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding among its participants.MethodsA quasi-experimental design was used to compare breastfeeding duration and exclusivity in the BSP group (N = 66) to breastfeeding duration and exclusivity in a control group (N = 72). Participants who followed the BSP were provided with 6 consults delivered by a lactation consultant. The consults started during pregnancy and continued up until 10 weeks after delivery. Participants in the control group did not follow the BSP. Pretest and posttest questionnaires were administered through the internet. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for cessation of any and exclusive breastfeeding, while controlling for differences at baseline.ResultsThe effect of the BSP on survival rates for any and exclusive breastfeeding were significant while controlling for differences between the two groups at baseline (respectively HR = 0.34, p < .001 [95% CI = 0.18-0.61] and HR = 0.46, p < .001 [95% CI = 0.29-0.72]). Among mothers in the BSP group there was on average 66% less risk of cessation of any breastfeeding and on average 54% less risk of cessation of exclusive breastfeeding at any point in time compared to those in the control group.ConclusionsThe BSP appears to be an effective means to delay cessation of any and exclusive breastfeeding cessation and therefore to increase breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. This is an important finding, because earlier cessation of breastfeeding than desired is a common problem in many countries. Future research into the effectiveness of the BSP could consider random assignment to conditions and test the effectiveness of the intervention in other populations to investigate further whether wide-scale implementation of this intervention could be useful to promote breastfeeding.

Project description:ObjectivesNeonatal jaundice is the most common problem in full-term infants during the immediate post-natal period. We examined the effect of a lactation support intervention on breastfeeding duration in hospitalized jaundiced infants.Study designWe conducted a randomized controlled trial with a qualitative component involving mothers of hospitalized jaundiced breastfed infants <4 weeks of age. Mothers receiving the intervention met with an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant in hospital and 1-3 times post discharge. Both groups received the standard care for jaundice. The primary outcome was exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months. To the exception of research assistants enrolling participants and completing qualitative interviews, all research staff, investigators and statisticians were blinded to group assignment. Qualitative interviews elicited feedback on breastfeeding experiences for both groups.Results99 participants were recruited, and 86 analyzed for primary outcome. There was no difference in exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months between groups (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.56-1.24, p = 0.40) or in the secondary outcomes. 31 participants were included in the qualitative analysis. Participants in the intervention group described an increase in comfort and confidence levels with breastfeeding. Participants in the control group reported limited lactation support.ConclusionsOur hospital-based lactation support program did not result in a higher proportion of mothers exclusively breastfeeding at 3 months compared to current hospital standard care. Qualitative feedback from the intervention group suggests that mothers' confidence was increased, which is linked to breastfeeding duration. The decision to breastfeed is multifactorial and hospital-based lactation support may be only a small piece of the puzzle in hospitalized jaundiced infants. Further studies may be needed to fully elucidate the impact of an in-hospital lactation support program on successful breastfeeding for these infants.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00966719 https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00966719?term=Lactation+Support+and+Breastfeeding+Duration+in+Jaundiced+Infants%3A+a+Randomized+Controlled+Trial&rank=1.

Dataset Information

Maternal trait personality and breastfeeding duration: the importance of confidence and social support.

Publications

Maternal trait personality and breastfeeding duration: the importance of confidence and social support.

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