TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding practices
T2 - A cross-sectional survey of postnatal mothers in China
AU - Hamze, Layal
AU - Mao, Jing
AU - Reifsnider, Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Huazhong University of Science and Technology [grant number 2016JCTD120]. We would like to thank all the participants and the two hospitals staff because the study would not have been possible without their support and their valuable contribution. We would like to express heartfelt appreciation all Chinese classmates who helped in translating, collecting data and statistics. We acknowledge Fabrice Wenze for his proofreading the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - Objective: To examine the mothers’ knowledge and attitudes toward breastfeeding and highlight barriers to exclusive breastfeeding in Chinese postpartum mothers. Design: Cross sectional survey Setting: Maternity wards of two large, multi-service teaching hospitals, Wuhan, China. Participants: 324 postnatal mothers completed a structured questionnaire during their stay at hospital from October 2016 to January 2017. Measurements and findings: Descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that most mothers showed neutral attitude on breastfeeding and neutral knowledge level as well. The average score for the total Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) was 56.55±4.77 M±SD, and 10.83±2.77, M±SD for the knowledge section. The mothers who had poor knowledge were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within an hour after birth. Conclusions: The results of this study are applicable to nurses and nurse midwives to assist in identification of women who may be at-risk to not initiate breastfeeding. Maternal positive attitude and good knowledge play key roles in the process of breastfeeding. Thus, it is important to provide antenatal and early postpartum education and periodical breastfeeding counselling, especially for new mothers, to improve maternal attitudes and knowledge toward breastfeeding practices.
AB - Objective: To examine the mothers’ knowledge and attitudes toward breastfeeding and highlight barriers to exclusive breastfeeding in Chinese postpartum mothers. Design: Cross sectional survey Setting: Maternity wards of two large, multi-service teaching hospitals, Wuhan, China. Participants: 324 postnatal mothers completed a structured questionnaire during their stay at hospital from October 2016 to January 2017. Measurements and findings: Descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that most mothers showed neutral attitude on breastfeeding and neutral knowledge level as well. The average score for the total Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) was 56.55±4.77 M±SD, and 10.83±2.77, M±SD for the knowledge section. The mothers who had poor knowledge were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within an hour after birth. Conclusions: The results of this study are applicable to nurses and nurse midwives to assist in identification of women who may be at-risk to not initiate breastfeeding. Maternal positive attitude and good knowledge play key roles in the process of breastfeeding. Thus, it is important to provide antenatal and early postpartum education and periodical breastfeeding counselling, especially for new mothers, to improve maternal attitudes and knowledge toward breastfeeding practices.
KW - Attitude
KW - Chinese mothers
KW - Exclusive breastfeeding
KW - Knowledge
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U2 - 10.1016/j.midw.2019.03.009
DO - 10.1016/j.midw.2019.03.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 30927634
AN - SCOPUS:85063383814
SN - 0266-6138
VL - 74
SP - 68
EP - 75
JO - Midwifery
JF - Midwifery
ER -