Psychology Division, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK.
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, FI-00079, Helsinki, Finland.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2022 Sep 10;22(1):699. doi: 10.1186/s12884-022-05010-5.
Being a new parent can be both joyful and stressful. Parenting stress is associated with poorer health and well-being for parents and infant and increased psychological distress. For new mothers, physical and hormonal changes, expectations of mothering and demands of a new baby may cause additional stress. Breastfeeding is promoted as optimal for maternal and infant health, but can have both positive and negative psychological impacts. Formal and informal social support can offset parenting and breastfeeding stress. Source, content and context of support for new parents are important considerations. This study compares two countries with different parenting and breastfeeding contexts, Finland (more supportive) and the UK (less supportive), investigating the role of breastfeeding stress, self-efficacy and social support as predictors of stress and role strain for new mothers.
A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 1550 breastfeeding mothers of infants up to 2 years old, recruited via social media platforms in Finland and the UK. Predictors of parenting stress and strain, including demograpic factors, childbirth experiences, breastfeeding and social support were investigated.
We found fewer differences between countries than expected, perhaps due to demographic and contextual differences. Women in Finland reported better childbirth experiences, more positive breastfeeding attitudes, and more self-efficacy than in the UK. Levels of parenting stress were similar in both countries. Women in the UK reported more parental role strain, but fewer breastfeeding stressors. Participants accessed more informal than formal supports, including their partner for parenting and facebook groups and family for breastfeeding. Analysis suggested breastfeeding stress and social support had significant direct effects - respectively increasing and reducing parenting stress and role strain, but no moderating effects of social support suggesting support did not change the relationship between breastfeeding and parenting stress.
Results have important implications for the provision of breastfeeding and parenting support for new mothers. Simple interventions to manage stress for mothers in the postnatal period could be beneficial and are easily delivered by supporters. As shown elsewhere, socio-economic and cultural factors are crucial influences on parenting experiences.
成为新父母既充满喜悦又充满压力。父母压力与父母和婴儿的健康状况较差以及心理困扰增加有关。对于新妈妈来说，身体和荷尔蒙的变化、为人母的期望以及新生儿的需求可能会导致额外的压力。母乳喂养被宣传为母婴健康的最佳选择，但可能会对母亲和婴儿产生积极和消极的心理影响。正式和非正式的社会支持可以减轻父母和母乳喂养的压力。新父母的支持来源、内容和背景非常重要。本研究比较了两个具有不同育儿和母乳喂养背景的国家，芬兰（更支持）和英国（支持较少），研究了母乳喂养压力、自我效能感和社会支持作为新母亲压力和角色紧张的预测因素的作用。
通过社交媒体平台在芬兰和英国招募了 1550 名 2 岁以下婴儿的母乳喂养母亲，完成了一项横断面在线调查。调查了包括人口统计学因素、分娩经历、母乳喂养和社会支持在内的预测父母压力和紧张的因素。
我们发现两国之间的差异比预期的要少，这也许是由于人口统计学和背景的差异。芬兰的女性报告分娩经历更好，对母乳喂养的态度更积极，自我效能感更高。两国的父母压力水平相似。英国的女性报告的父母角色压力更大，但母乳喂养的压力源更少。参与者更多地获得非正式支持，而不是正式支持，包括伴侣的育儿支持、脸书群组和家人的母乳喂养支持。分析表明，母乳喂养压力和社会支持具有显著的直接影响——分别增加和减少父母压力和角色紧张，但社会支持没有调节作用，表明支持并没有改变母乳喂养和父母压力之间的关系。
研究结果对为新妈妈提供母乳喂养和育儿支持具有重要意义。为产后母亲提供简单的压力管理干预措施可能会有所帮助，并且很容易由支持者提供。正如其他地方所示，社会经济和文化因素对育儿体验至关重要。
