New mothers’ breastfeeding expectations, challenges, and the return to employment

Hough, C.; Prussing, Erica; Applegate, Kayleigh

doi:10.4324/9781315145129-13

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…There are large inequalities in infant feeding experience along structural lines in the UK and similar HIC (Victora et al, 2016), contributing to socioeconomic gradients in inflammation and infant weight (McDade & Koning, 2021). These inequalities exist due to cultural and religious norms around breastfeeding, particularly in public (Chang et al, 2021), access to social support (Grubesic & Durbin, 2020;Tomori, 2009), opportunity costs of breastfeeding (Hough et al, 2018;Tully & Ball, 2018), as well having convenient and quickto-access places to breastfeed (Brown et al, 2020;Hauck et al, 2020). Furthermore, the experience of breastfeeding problems is unlikely to be evenly distributed as one study found that young, unmarried and non-college educated US women were more likely to experience breastfeeding problems resulting in disrupted lactation (Stuebe et al, 2014).…”

Section: Hypothesis 3: the Type Of Support Impacts The Moderating Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we argue that social support may "buffer" against the negative impact of breastfeeding problems on breastfeeding duration in the UK. Increased access to breastfeeding knowledge as well as emotional and practical support may help mothers overcome the often unexpected challenges of breastfeeding (Hough et al, 2018), increasing women's ability to cope and deal with breastfeeding problems. Here, support is operationalized as a "resource transfer" from an individual supporter to the mother (Emmott et al, 2021;Myers et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the buffering hypothesis: breastfeeding problems, cessation and social support in the UK

Page¹,

Emmott²,

Myers³

2020

Preprint

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Objectives: Physical breastfeeding problems can lead women to terminate breastfeeding earlier than planned. In high-income countries, breastfeeding problems have been attributed to the cultural and individual “inexperience” of breastfeeding, ultimately leading to lower breastfeeding rates. Yet, cross-cultural evidence suggests breastfeeding problems still occur in contexts where breastfeeding is common, prolonged and seen publicly. This suggests breastfeeding problems are not unusual and do not necessarily lead to breastfeeding cessation. Having evolved a cooperative childrearing system, what matters for breastfeeding continuation may be the availability of social support during the postnatal period. Here, we test the hypothesis that social support buffers mothers from the negative impact breastfeeding problems have on duration. Methods: We run cox models on a sample of 566 UK mothers who completed a retrospective online survey about infant feeding and social support in 2017-2018. Results: Breastfeeding problems were important predictors of cessation; however, the direction of the effect was dependent on the type of problem. These relationships were also moderated by informational, practical and emotional support from a range of supporters. Helpful support for discomfort issues (blocked ducts, too much milk) significantly reduced the hazard of cessation, as predicted. However, helpful support for reported milk insufficiency increased the hazard of cessation. Conclusions: Experiencing breastfeeding problems is the norm, but its impact may be mitigated via social support. Working from an interdisciplinary approach, our results highlight that a wide range of supporters who provide different types of support have potential to influence maternal breastfeeding experience.

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Section: Hypothesis 3: the Type Of Support Impacts The Moderating Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the buffering hypothesis: breastfeeding problems, cessation and social support in the UK

Page¹,

Emmott²,

Myers³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are large inequalities in infant feeding experience along structural lines in the UK and similar HIC (Victora et al, 2016), contributing to socioeconomic gradients in inflammation and infant weight (McDade & Koning, 2021). These inequalities exist due to cultural and religious norms around breastfeeding, particularly in public (Chang et al, 2021), access to social support (Grubesic & Durbin, 2020; Tomori, 2009), opportunity costs of breastfeeding (Hough et al, 2018; Tully & Ball, 2018), as well having convenient and quick‐to‐access places to breastfeed (Brown et al, 2020; Hauck et al, 2020). Furthermore, the experience of breastfeeding problems is unlikely to be evenly distributed as one study found that young, unmarried and non‐college educated US women were more likely to experience breastfeeding problems resulting in disrupted lactation (Stuebe et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we argue that social support may “buffer” against the negative impact of breastfeeding problems on breastfeeding duration in the UK. Increased access to breastfeeding knowledge as well as emotional and practical support may help mothers overcome the often unexpected challenges of breastfeeding (Hough et al, 2018), increasing women's ability to cope and deal with breastfeeding problems. Here, support is operationalized as a “resource transfer” from an individual supporter to the mother (Emmott et al, 2021; Myers et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the buffering hypothesis: Breastfeeding problems, cessation, and social support in the UK

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives Physical breastfeeding problems can lead women to terminate breastfeeding earlier than planned. In high‐income countries such as the UK, breastfeeding problems have been attributed to the cultural and individual “inexperience” of breastfeeding, ultimately leading to lower breastfeeding rates. Yet, cross‐cultural evidence suggests breastfeeding problems still occur in contexts where breastfeeding is common, prolonged, and seen publicly. This suggests breastfeeding problems are not unusual and do not necessarily lead to breastfeeding cessation. As humans evolved to raise children cooperatively, what matters for breastfeeding continuation may be the availability of social support during the postnatal period. Here, we test the hypothesis that social support buffers mothers from the negative impact breastfeeding problems have on duration. Methods We run Cox models on a sample of 565 UK mothers who completed a retrospective online survey about infant feeding and social support in 2017–2018. Results Breastfeeding problems were important predictors of cessation; however, the direction of the effect was dependent on the problem type and type of support from a range of supporters. Helpful support for discomfort issues (blocked ducts, too much milk) was significantly associated with reduced hazards of cessation, as predicted. However, helpful support for reported milk insufficiency was assoicated with an increased hazard of cessation. Conclusions Experiencing breastfeeding problems is the norm, but its impact may be mitigated via social support. Working from an interdisciplinary approach, our results highlight that a wide range of supporters who provide different types of support have potential to influence maternal breastfeeding experience.

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New mothers’ breastfeeding expectations, challenges, and the return to employment

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

Testing the buffering hypothesis: breastfeeding problems, cessation and social support in the UK

Testing the buffering hypothesis: breastfeeding problems, cessation and social support in the UK

Testing the buffering hypothesis: Breastfeeding problems, cessation, and social support in the UK

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