Health visitors play a crucial role in supporting mothers who choose to breastfeed and their families. This accessible text enables readers to practise confidently in this vital area, focusing on underpinning knowledge and parent-centred... more
Health visitors play a crucial role in supporting mothers who choose to breastfeed and their families. This accessible text enables readers to practise confidently in this vital area, focusing on underpinning knowledge and parent-centred counselling skills, and understanding cultural contexts.
Breastfeeding a child improves the lifelong health of a population, and promoting breastfeeding is an important area of public health practice. Breastfeeding for Public Health incorporates the voices of health visitors, mothers and fathers to give insight into common practical challenges faced and suggestions for overcoming or working around them. Presenting up-to-date research, it explores the practical skills needed by health visitors to support mothers with breastfeeding; how to develop the communication skills and self-awareness necessary to build successful and trusting relationships with women and their families; why breastfeeding is so important for babies' and mothers' health and psychological attachment, closeness and long-term mental health; what we know about the content of breastmilk and the positive effect it has on the baby’s gut microbiome, which in turn benefits the infant’s long-term health and helps to protect against non-communicable diseases; the role of the father and grandparents in successfully initiating and sustaining breastfeeding; and how cultural awareness and sensitivity can influence practice for the better.
Objective The aim of the present study was to explore knowledge of the UK weaning guidelines and the sources of weaning advice used by UK first-time mothers. Design An online survey of UK parents; analysed using mixed methods. Setting... more
Objective The aim of the present study was to explore knowledge of the UK weaning guidelines and the sources of weaning advice used by UK first-time mothers.
Design An online survey of UK parents; analysed using mixed methods.
Setting Participants were recruited from a selection of parenting websites that hosted a link to the survey.
Subjects In total, 1348 UK first-time mothers were included in the analysis.
Results Knowledge of the guidelines was high (86 %) and associated with later weaning (P < 0·001), although 43 % of this sample weaned before 24 weeks. The majority of parents used multiple sources of information, the most influential being the health visitor (26 %), the Internet (25 %) and books (18 %). Fifty-six per cent said they received conflicting advice. Younger mothers and those of lower educational attainment were more likely to be influenced by advice from family, which was likely to be to wean earlier. Furthermore, those most influenced by their mother/grandmother were less likely to have accurate knowledge of the guidelines. In this population the Internet was used for weaning advice across all sociodemographic groups and was associated with a later weaning age, independently of sociodemographic factors (P < 0·001). Data from responses to a free-text question are used in illustration.
Conclusions The study suggests that first-time mothers have a good understanding of the weaning guidelines but seek weaning information from multiple sources, much of which is conflicting. Informal sources of weaning advice appear most influential in younger mothers and those of lower educational attainment, and result in earlier weaning.
Uvod: Prva godina života djeteta, odnosno razdoblje nakon poroda predstavljaju burno razdoblje u kojemu žena treba podršku na fizičkom, psihičkom i socijalnom području funkcioniranja. Zadovoljavanje edukacijskih i suportivnih potreba... more
Uvod: Prva godina života djeteta, odnosno razdoblje nakon poroda predstavljaju burno razdoblje u kojemu žena treba podršku na fizičkom, psihičkom i socijalnom području funkcioniranja. Zadovoljavanje edukacijskih i suportivnih potreba kako majke tako i obitelji, od izuzetnog je značaja. Kako nerijetko nisu zadovoljeni svi aspekti skrbi nakon porođaja, ističe se važnost rada i kontinuirane edukacije patronažnih sestara. Upravo su patronažne sestre te koje omogućavaju pravodobnu pomoć i potporu majci da na najbolji način savlada postojeće prepreke i ostvari najveću razinu dobrobiti za sebe i dijete. Cilj ovog rada je procijeniti dobivene i potrebne razinu podrške kod žena tijekom prve godine života djeteta. Osim toga, cilj je procijeniti najčešće prisutne emocije u svrhu identifikacije najčešćih raspoloženja te planiranja mogućih potrebnih načina podrške kod rodilja.
Metode i ispitanici: Interno izrađenim upitnikom ispitano je (xx) majki iz raznih gradova Republike Hrvatske. Ispitanicama je dodijeljen konstruiran upitnik za procjenu dobivene i potrebne podrške, a u svrhu dobivanja pojedinih podataka korištena je i PANAS skala za procjenu pozitivnih i negativnih emocija. Upitnik je bio u potpunosti anoniman i sastojao se od sedam specifičnih pitanja zatvorenog tipa.
Rezultati: Obrađeni podatci ukazuju da je najveći broj ispitanica u braku ili izvanbračnoj zajednici, a od obrazovanja imaju srednju stručnu spremu. Dobiveni rezultati također pokazuju da većina ispitanica ima najveću razinu podršku u skrbi za dijete od strane svoje obitelji. Većina njih komunicira nekoliko puta mjesečno sa svojom patronažnom sestrom. Oko kućanskih poslova i skrb za dijete, majke su se izrazile da podjednako trebaju srednji stupanj podrške. Kao emocije u najvećem stupnju se ističe osjećaj sreće, a u najmanjem osjećaj prestravljeno. Zaključak: Uočeno je da brojnim savjetovanjima, edukacijama i grupama za potporu uvelike pridonosimo majkama u ovom osjetljivom razdoblju njihovog života. Ukoliko se navedene aktivnosti pruže pravovremeno, odnosno odmah nakon izlaska iz rodilište, majka će znatno lakše savladati prepreke na koje nailazi tijekom prve godine djetetova života.
Ključne riječi: razina podrške, potpora majkama, patronažna sestra
