School of Population Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, 6845, Australia.
Foodbank WA, Perth, 6105, Australia.
Matern Child Health J. 2023 May;27(5):954-964. doi: 10.1007/s10995-023-03616-5. Epub 2023 Mar 15.
The support of her infant's father is one of the most important factors influencing a mother's breastfeeding success, and an increasing number of interventions are targeted towards fathers. Engaging fathers as agents to influence a maternal behavior is potentially problematic, yet few studies report on maternal experiences.
This study aims to explore mothers' perspectives of their partners' use of Milk Man, a father-focused breastfeeding smartphone app, and the acceptability of this approach.
New mothers (N = 459) whose partners had access to the app completed a questionnaire at six weeks postpartum. These data were used to determine knowledge, use and perspectives of the app. A sentiment analysis was conducted on responses to an open-ended question seeking maternal perspectives of the app.
Just over a quarter of mothers (28%) had been shown something from the app, and 37% had discussed something from Milk Man with their partner. There were 162 open-ended responses related to mothers' perspectives of the app. Relevant responses (n = 129) were coded to an overall sentiment node and then to a total of 23 child nodes (sub-nodes). Most comments were positive (94), with a smaller number either negative (25) or neutral (21). Negative comments related to the usability of the app and not its intent or content.
Mothers found the father-focussed breastfeeding app to be acceptable. When designing interventions targeting one group to affect the behaviour of another, inclusion of measures to gain the perspectives of both should be seen as an imperative.
婴儿父亲的支持是影响母亲母乳喂养成功的最重要因素之一，越来越多的干预措施针对父亲。让父亲作为影响母亲行为的代理人可能存在问题，但很少有研究报告母亲的经验。
本研究旨在探讨母亲对其伴侣使用 Milk Man（一款以父亲为重点的母乳喂养智能手机应用程序）的看法，以及这种方法的可接受性。
在产后六周，让有访问权限的父亲使用该应用程序的新母亲（N=459）完成了一份问卷。这些数据用于确定他们对应用程序的知识、使用情况和看法。对一个寻求母亲对应用程序看法的开放式问题的回答进行了情感分析。
略多于四分之一的母亲（28%）看过应用程序中的内容，37%的母亲与伴侣讨论过应用程序中的内容。共有 162 条与母亲对应用程序的看法相关的开放式回复。相关回复（n=129）被编码到一个总体情感节点，然后再到总共 23 个儿童节点（子节点）。大多数评论是积极的（94%），少数是消极的（25%）或中立的（21%）。负面评论与应用程序的可用性有关，而不是其意图或内容。
母亲认为以父亲为重点的母乳喂养应用程序是可以接受的。当设计针对一个群体的干预措施来影响另一个群体的行为时，应该将获得双方观点的措施视为必要。
