Cargando…

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lawlor, Niamh, Prihodova, Lucia, Byrne, Deborah, Etherton, Megan, Rahill, Felicienne, Wilson, Catie, O’Sullivan, Elizabeth J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
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
_version_ 1785077996911067136
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
work_keys_str_mv AT lawlorniamh aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT prihodovalucia aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT byrnedeborah aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT ethertonmegan aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT rahillfelicienne aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT wilsoncatie aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT osullivanelizabethj aqualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT lawlorniamh qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT prihodovalucia qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT byrnedeborah qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT ethertonmegan qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT rahillfelicienne qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT wilsoncatie qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland
AT osullivanelizabethj qualitativeanalysisofwomenspostnatalexperiencesofbreastfeedingsupportsduringtheperinatalperiodinireland