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A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland
Ireland has among the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide. Despite policies to support breastfeeding, breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity remain low in Ireland. Greater knowledge about support received in the maternity unit may—in part—shed light on why this is so. Our aim was to analyse wo...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37494302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288230 |
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author | Lawlor, Niamh Prihodova, Lucia Byrne, Deborah Etherton, Megan Rahill, Felicienne Wilson, Catie O’Sullivan, Elizabeth J. |
author_facet | Lawlor, Niamh Prihodova, Lucia Byrne, Deborah Etherton, Megan Rahill, Felicienne Wilson, Catie O’Sullivan, Elizabeth J. |
author_sort | Lawlor, Niamh |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ireland has among the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide. Despite policies to support breastfeeding, breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity remain low in Ireland. Greater knowledge about support received in the maternity unit may—in part—shed light on why this is so. Our aim was to analyse women’s experiences of the breastfeeding supports available in the early postnatal period in Ireland. We conducted an analysis of an open-ended question on a cross-sectional survey about breastfeeding support conducted in the Republic of Ireland in 2022. Participants were asked to provide comments about the breastfeeding support they received in the maternity unit or during your home birth. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step Thematic Analysis Framework. There were 5,412 unique responses to the survey and 2,264 responses to the question of interest. Two themes were generated from the data: (i) ‘Breastfeeding support in theory but not in practice.’ Although breastfeeding was promoted by healthcare professionals antenatally, breastfeeding challenges were rarely mentioned. Participants then felt unsupported in overcoming challenges postnatally. (ii) ‘Support was either inaccessible due to lack of staff/time, inadequate; i.e., unhelpful or non-specific, and/or physically inappropriate.’ Most participants described receiving supports that were less than optimal in aiding them to establish breastfeeding. While many described difficulties in accessing supports, others found support to be ‘non-specific,’ ‘rushed’ and sometimes ‘rough.’ A lack of knowledge, time and support from healthcare professionals was frequently described, which was often recognised as a failing of the healthcare system. Women require practical, informative, and specific breastfeeding support. Barriers such as lack of time and trained staff in the maternity unit need to be addressed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10370717 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103707172023-07-27 A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland Lawlor, Niamh Prihodova, Lucia Byrne, Deborah Etherton, Megan Rahill, Felicienne Wilson, Catie O’Sullivan, Elizabeth J. PLoS One Research Article Ireland has among the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide. Despite policies to support breastfeeding, breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity remain low in Ireland. Greater knowledge about support received in the maternity unit may—in part—shed light on why this is so. Our aim was to analyse women’s experiences of the breastfeeding supports available in the early postnatal period in Ireland. We conducted an analysis of an open-ended question on a cross-sectional survey about breastfeeding support conducted in the Republic of Ireland in 2022. Participants were asked to provide comments about the breastfeeding support they received in the maternity unit or during your home birth. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step Thematic Analysis Framework. There were 5,412 unique responses to the survey and 2,264 responses to the question of interest. Two themes were generated from the data: (i) ‘Breastfeeding support in theory but not in practice.’ Although breastfeeding was promoted by healthcare professionals antenatally, breastfeeding challenges were rarely mentioned. Participants then felt unsupported in overcoming challenges postnatally. (ii) ‘Support was either inaccessible due to lack of staff/time, inadequate; i.e., unhelpful or non-specific, and/or physically inappropriate.’ Most participants described receiving supports that were less than optimal in aiding them to establish breastfeeding. While many described difficulties in accessing supports, others found support to be ‘non-specific,’ ‘rushed’ and sometimes ‘rough.’ A lack of knowledge, time and support from healthcare professionals was frequently described, which was often recognised as a failing of the healthcare system. Women require practical, informative, and specific breastfeeding support. Barriers such as lack of time and trained staff in the maternity unit need to be addressed. Public Library of Science 2023-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10370717/ /pubmed/37494302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288230 Text en © 2023 Lawlor et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Lawlor, Niamh Prihodova, Lucia Byrne, Deborah Etherton, Megan Rahill, Felicienne Wilson, Catie O’Sullivan, Elizabeth J. A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title | A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title_full | A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title_fullStr | A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title_full_unstemmed | A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title_short | A qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in Ireland |
title_sort | qualitative analysis of women’s postnatal experiences of breastfeeding supports during the perinatal period in ireland |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37494302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288230 |
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