Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1665 University Blvd, RPHB 217, Birmingham, AL, 35294-0022, USA.
Health Services Administration, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA.
Int Breastfeed J. 2024 Sep 11;19(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s13006-024-00671-8.
Despite the many benefits of exclusive breastfeeding to infants and mothers, only 33% of Jamaican infants are exclusively breastfed up to the recommend six months. This study was conducted to identify factors affecting mothers' feeding choices focusing on barriers to exclusive breastfeeding of infants six weeks to less than six months old.
A qualitative study consisting of four focus group discussion sessions was conducted among 22 mothers attending postnatal clinics in western Jamaica from May to August 2016. The transcripts were coded by three independent coders and content analysis conducted to generate themes.
Four themes were identified namely, perceived advantages of breastfeeding centered mainly on the benefits of breastfeeding for the infant and mother, perceived barriers of breastfeeding highlighting physical pain and fatigue, supplementing culturally acceptable complementary foods and herbal remedies, and cultural norms including perception of how breastfeeding affects a woman's body, societal sources of breastfeeding information, satiation of infants, and family and other support. Mothers overwhelmingly agreed that breastfeeding was inexpensive, allowed them to bond with their infants and was good for the overall health and intellectual development of the infants. They identified painful nipples, engorged breasts, lack of sleep, physical exhaustion and pressure to return to work as barriers to breastfeeding. Mothers named a number of complementary foods, such as pumpkin, carrots, potato, banana, and chocho (Chayote), that were culturally accepted for feeding infants in Jamaica and discussed herbs that were considered to aid in infants' nutrition and overall health. Other cultural factors that were noted to influence exclusive breastfeeding were mothers feeling that breastfeeding would help their bodies, especially their bellies, go back to their pre-maternity figure, sources of breastfeeding information in the society including the internet, belief that breast milk alone does not satisfy babies, and family and other support.
Mothers in this study identified unique challenges to exclusive breastfeeding that if addressed, would help to increase exclusive breastfeeding so that the World Health Organization's exclusive breastfeeding recommendations can be achieved.
尽管纯母乳喂养对婴儿和母亲有诸多益处，但只有 33%的牙买加婴儿在六个月前完全母乳喂养。本研究旨在确定影响母亲喂养选择的因素，重点关注 6 周龄至不到 6 个月大的婴儿进行纯母乳喂养的障碍。
2016 年 5 月至 8 月，在牙买加西部的产后诊所，对 22 名母亲进行了四项焦点小组讨论。三位独立编码员对转录本进行编码，并进行内容分析以生成主题。
确定了四个主题，即母乳喂养的感知优势主要集中在母乳喂养对婴儿和母亲的好处上，母乳喂养的感知障碍突出了身体疼痛和疲劳、补充文化上可接受的补充食品和草药疗法，以及文化规范，包括母乳喂养如何影响女性身体的看法、母乳喂养信息的社会来源、婴儿的饱腹感，以及家庭和其他支持。母亲们普遍认为母乳喂养既便宜又能让她们与婴儿建立联系，对婴儿的整体健康和智力发展有益。她们认为乳头疼痛、乳房肿胀、睡眠不足、身体疲惫和重返工作的压力是母乳喂养的障碍。母亲们提到了一些在牙买加被认为适合喂养婴儿的补充食品，如南瓜、胡萝卜、土豆、香蕉和 chocho（佛手瓜），并讨论了一些被认为有助于婴儿营养和整体健康的草药。其他被认为会影响纯母乳喂养的文化因素包括母亲们认为母乳喂养有助于她们的身体，尤其是腹部，恢复到产前的体型、社会中的母乳喂养信息来源，包括互联网、相信仅靠母乳不能满足婴儿的需求，以及家庭和其他支持。
本研究中的母亲确定了纯母乳喂养面临的独特挑战，如果加以解决，将有助于增加纯母乳喂养，从而实现世界卫生组织的纯母乳喂养建议。
