Breastfeeding Information and Support Across Multiple Sources: Identifying Opportunities for Coordinated Care

Sutter, Carolyn; Davis, E. G.; Lundquist, Alexandra; Koress, Valerie; Isberg, Karima; Bryant-Cromwell, Mary; Meline, Brandon; McBride, Brent A.; Fiese, Barbara H.

doi:10.1891/clinlact-d-19-00017

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…While at first glance it may be surprising that participants who reported their health visitors to be emotionally supportive but informationally unhelpful had longer lactation durations than those who reported both informational and emotional supported positively, this may reflect a lack of need of informational support among these participants [5,50]. Earlier work with this sample has found that support clusters [48], suggesting participants with supportive health visitors were also likely to have ready access to other supporters who may duplicate information, dampening the perceived utility of their advice [51,52]. Affluent mothers, who predominate in our sample, typically have privileged access to support and are likely to breastfeed for longer [53,54].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In fact, at times, she made me feel inadequate and gave me incorrect/out-of-date information." Ensuring that health visitors are able to offer effective strategies to navigate challenges and difficulties from the initiation until the cessation of breastfeeding can help facilitate a positive breastfeeding experience [24,52], while those who are formula feeding must also not be forgotten [4]. It is also important for health visitors to quickly and actively refer women to specialist breastfeeding councilors such as lactation consultants -provided they are available-to ensure mothers have access to high quality informational support.…”

Section: Recommendations For Best Practice For Health Visitorsmentioning

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.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Recommendations For Best Practice For Health Visitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Chambers¹,

Myers²,

Emmott³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While at first glance it may be surprising that participants who reported their health visitors to be emotionally supportive but informationally unhelpful had longer lactation durations than those who reported both informational and emotional supported positively, this may reflect a lack of need for informational support among these participants [5,50]. Earlier work with this sample has found that support clusters [48], suggesting participants with supportive health visitors were also likely to have ready access to other supporters who may duplicate information, dampening the perceived utility of their advice [51,52]. Affluent mothers, who predominate in our sample, typically have privileged access to support and information, and are likely to breastfeed for longer [53,54].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In fact, at times, made me feel inadequate and gave me incorrect/out-of-date information." Ensuring that health visitors are able to offer effective strategies to navigate challenges and difficulties from the initiation until the cessation of breastfeeding can help facilitate a positive breastfeeding experience [24,52], while those who are formula feeding must also not be forgotten [4]. It is also important for health visitors to quickly and actively refer women to specialist breastfeeding councilors such as lactation consultants -provided they are available-to ensure mothers have access to high quality informational support.…”

Section: Recommendations For Best Practice For Health Visitorsmentioning

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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Impact of Brief Lactation Rotation in Residency on Decision to Refer for Lactation Support

Kindred,

Barta

2024

J Prim Care Community Health

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Introduction: Breastfeeding challenges may be difficult to address within the constraints of a typical well-child visit. A team-based approach, including lactation consultants, can reduce physician workload, increase breastfeeding self-efficacy, and increase patient satisfaction. Continuity of care issues, including absent or delayed referrals, hinder patient access to skilled lactation support. Objectives: To examine the post-residency referral patterns of physicians to lactation consultants among physicians who did or did not participate in a brief outpatient lactation rotation at an academic lactation clinic during residency. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of physicians who completed residency programs in pediatrics, family medicine, or medicine-pediatrics between 2013 and 2022 was conducted using REDCap; 46 valid responses were received. Results: Respondents who participated in a brief outpatient lactation rotation during residency refer patients to lactation consultants with significantly higher frequency than those who did not complete the rotation. Among those with lactation consultants in their geographic area, this relationship remained significant even when adjusting for residency type, gender, experience with an inpatient lactation consultant, and infant feeding attitudes using multiple linear regression. Conclusions: An outpatient lactation rotation during medical residency may increase the likelihood of referring to a lactation consultant in post-residency practice, which can improve breastfeeding outcomes.

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Breastfeeding Information and Support Across Multiple Sources: Identifying Opportunities for Coordinated Care

Cited by 3 publications

References 18 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

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

Impact of Brief Lactation Rotation in Residency on Decision to Refer for Lactation Support

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