Breastfeeding has many benefits that can change your life.
Breast milk contains antibodies which reduce the risk for allergies, asthma, diarrhea, and ear infections. Infants who are breastfed are less likely to be admitted to the hospital than those who aren't. Breastfed babies are less likely to become overweight later in life and have higher intelligence scores. Breastfeeding mothers are less likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer.
These benefits increase with breastfeeding time. While breastfeeding for the first week is good, it is better to breastfeed for the first year.
Public Health England made it a priority for breastfeeding support and the Scottish government committed to increasing breastfeeding duration.
A pilot study was conducted by Tracy McGillivray, a MSc student, and me. We gave advice cards and planning/advice cards in the final stages of a woman's pregnancy to help her transition to breastfeeding. The cards had a four-fold higher success rate in helping women quit breastfeeding than those who didn't receive them.
Myths and misperceptions
Breastfeeding can be difficult. It can be physically exhausting. The vast majority of women who responded to the 2010 large-scale Infant Feeding Survey reported experiencing breast or nipple discomfort at some time during breastfeeding.
It can even be socially humiliating, even these days. Two news stories recently featured breastfeeding mothers being criticized. In one instance, the mother was told to get out of her garden.
There are still many misconceptions regarding breastfeeding.
Industry can help you to believe some of these myths. Recent research found that formula manufacturers gave inaccurate information about the relative merits of formula over breastfeeding. Manufacturers' websites overstated the benefits and disadvantages of breastfeeding.
Some of these misconceptions can be dangerous.
Advocates often say that breastfeeding is "the best thing in the world". This statement ignores the fact breastfeeding, for new mothers, is a new behavior and requires some adjustment.
The Infant Feeding Survey reveals the difficulties of breastfeeding. One in five breastfeeding mothers in Scotland stopped breastfeeding within two weeks of giving birth. In Wales and Northern Ireland, the drop-off rate in the first two weeks of breastfeeding is even greater.
Importantly, 86 per cent of mothers who stopped breastfeeding within the first two weeks say they wish they had breastfed longer.
These statistics, which show a much higher rate of breastfeed abandonment than what women would like, indicate that there is a need for a supportive approach to helping women breastfeed more effectively.
Tracy McGillivray is a MSc student in our behavioral science program who also works as a child nutrition specialist for NHS Lothian. We now know that it works.
She recognized the disconnect between reality and intention in the paragraph before and collaborated with me to design a card for breastfeeding planning.
She recruited 81 women from antenatal classes in Edinburgh. Randomly, she assigned some mothers to be a control group and others to receive one or both of the planning cards we created.
What were the meanings of the cards?
The planning card had one goal: to help mothers anticipate the difficulties they might face when starting a breastfeeding program. We wanted to reassure mothers that breastfeeding difficulties are normal.
We listed the four most common obstacles to breastfeeding on one side.
(David Comerford)
The card's second purpose was to help women plan for these challenges. The card was presented to women at the end of their pregnancy, when they were facing the reality of becoming mothers. However, there was still time to plan for breastfeeding.
Along with the list of obstacles, we included a list of tips from the Infant Feeding Survey as well as peer-reviewed literature. The resulting card was called Obstacles/Tips card (or O/T card as shown in the graph).
Some cards also featured a prompt on the reverse that said: "When my baby is born, I plan to breastfeed." This was added because of research that shows that people can express a specific intention when they exercise and die. These are the "Enhanced O/T cards" as shown in the graph.
(David Comerford)
The graph below shows what actually happened.
The control group, which received no card, is represented by the green lines. All women had indicated that they intended to breastfeed. Eighty percent of them had breastfed by the time they were discharged from the hospital. We contacted them between 10-14 days after their due dates to find out that only 64 percent of them were still breastfeeding.
This control group also shows a negative trend if it focuses on breastfeeding exclusively, which means no formula milk topping up.
This is significant because breastmilk-only babies enjoy certain health benefits.
Contrast these downward trends in breastfeeding and exclusive nursing with the two-card group.
Most mothers who had been discharged from hospital with an O/T or Enhanced O/T cards were still breastfeeding between 10-14 days after their discharge.
It is remarkable that the slope difference between the discharge and follow-up periods was a decrease for the control group and a nearly horizontal line for those in the card groups. We hope that these results will encourage others to use our card and adapt it to promote breastfeeding.
David Comerford is a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Stirling.
This article was republished by The Conversation under Creative Commons. You can read the original article.
