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The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus

Background: This study explores the effect of antenatal education on fathers’ attitudes toward: (i) breastfeeding and (ii) attachment to the fetus. A secondary aim is to explore the relationship of fathers’ demographic and the psycho-emotional characteristics that come with breastfeeding and attachm...

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Autores principales: Dagla, Calliope, Antoniou, Evangelia, Sarantaki, Antigoni, Iliadou, Maria, Mrvoljak-Theodoropoulou, Irina, Andersson, Ewa, Dagla, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9944450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36810274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nursrep13010023
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author Dagla, Calliope
Antoniou, Evangelia
Sarantaki, Antigoni
Iliadou, Maria
Mrvoljak-Theodoropoulou, Irina
Andersson, Ewa
Dagla, Maria
author_facet Dagla, Calliope
Antoniou, Evangelia
Sarantaki, Antigoni
Iliadou, Maria
Mrvoljak-Theodoropoulou, Irina
Andersson, Ewa
Dagla, Maria
author_sort Dagla, Calliope
collection PubMed
description Background: This study explores the effect of antenatal education on fathers’ attitudes toward: (i) breastfeeding and (ii) attachment to the fetus. A secondary aim is to explore the relationship of fathers’ demographic and the psycho-emotional characteristics that come with breastfeeding and attachment. Methods: This is a longitudinal study involving a group of 216 Greek expectant fathers who participated with their partners in an antenatal educational program performed by midwives in Athens, Greece (September 2020–November 2021). The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitudes Scale (IIFAS) and Paternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (PAAS) were administered at two time points: (a) 24th–28th gestation week and (b) 34th–38th gestation week. The T-test and Univariate Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) were performed. Results: The expectant fathers’ scores show that breastfeeding intention/exclusivity and prenatal attachment to the fetus were higher after their participation in the antenatal education program, but the difference was not statistically insignificant. Expectant fathers with a cohabitation agreement (p = 0.026), who felt very much supported by their partners (p = 0.001) and had no relationship difficulties with their partners (p < 0.001), as well as those who reported being very happy during pregnancy (p < 0.001), showed greater paternal antenatal attachment to the fetus. Conclusions: Although the difference was statistically insignificant, antenatal education appears to have an impact on paternal breastfeeding attitudes and antenatal attachment to the fetus. Additionally, several paternal characteristics were associated with greater antenatal attachment. Future research should be directed toward the investigation of additional factors that impact antenatal–paternal attachment and breastfeeding attitudes so that effective education programs can be designed.
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spelling pubmed-99444502023-02-23 The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus Dagla, Calliope Antoniou, Evangelia Sarantaki, Antigoni Iliadou, Maria Mrvoljak-Theodoropoulou, Irina Andersson, Ewa Dagla, Maria Nurs Rep Article Background: This study explores the effect of antenatal education on fathers’ attitudes toward: (i) breastfeeding and (ii) attachment to the fetus. A secondary aim is to explore the relationship of fathers’ demographic and the psycho-emotional characteristics that come with breastfeeding and attachment. Methods: This is a longitudinal study involving a group of 216 Greek expectant fathers who participated with their partners in an antenatal educational program performed by midwives in Athens, Greece (September 2020–November 2021). The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitudes Scale (IIFAS) and Paternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (PAAS) were administered at two time points: (a) 24th–28th gestation week and (b) 34th–38th gestation week. The T-test and Univariate Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) were performed. Results: The expectant fathers’ scores show that breastfeeding intention/exclusivity and prenatal attachment to the fetus were higher after their participation in the antenatal education program, but the difference was not statistically insignificant. Expectant fathers with a cohabitation agreement (p = 0.026), who felt very much supported by their partners (p = 0.001) and had no relationship difficulties with their partners (p < 0.001), as well as those who reported being very happy during pregnancy (p < 0.001), showed greater paternal antenatal attachment to the fetus. Conclusions: Although the difference was statistically insignificant, antenatal education appears to have an impact on paternal breastfeeding attitudes and antenatal attachment to the fetus. Additionally, several paternal characteristics were associated with greater antenatal attachment. Future research should be directed toward the investigation of additional factors that impact antenatal–paternal attachment and breastfeeding attitudes so that effective education programs can be designed. MDPI 2023-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9944450/ /pubmed/36810274 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nursrep13010023 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dagla, Calliope
Antoniou, Evangelia
Sarantaki, Antigoni
Iliadou, Maria
Mrvoljak-Theodoropoulou, Irina
Andersson, Ewa
Dagla, Maria
The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title_full The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title_fullStr The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title_short The Effect of Antenatal Education on Expectant Fathers’ Attitudes toward Breastfeeding and Attachment to the Fetus
title_sort effect of antenatal education on expectant fathers’ attitudes toward breastfeeding and attachment to the fetus
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9944450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36810274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nursrep13010023
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