A comparison of breastfeeding women's, peer supporters' and student midwives' breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes.
In the United Kingdom over 90% of women do not breastfeed for as long as they would like, despite widespread knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding. Negative attitudes and low levels of knowledge in staff supporting breastfeeding may be a contributing factor. This paper reports on the breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes in two key workforce groups; student midwives (n = 19) and Breastfeeding Network peer supporters (n = 36) and compares them with breastfeeding women (n = 23). All three groups had high knowledge and attitude scores, but peer supporters had significantly higher levels than student midwives or breastfeeding women. Student midwives' knowledge of breastfeeding was higher than breastfeeding women's but they had similar breastfeeding attitude scores. The higher knowledge and attitude scores in peer supporters may be attributed to the effectiveness of their training, which includes challenging their existing breastfeeding attitudes and debriefing their personal breastfeeding experience. It is suggested that midwives' breastfeeding attitudes are affected by their community culture and their personal experience of breastfeeding. It is proposed that midwifery training should continue to embrace a biopsychosocial model, including training to improve breastfeeding attitudes, particularly for professionals from areas where breastfeeding is not the cultural norm, or who have had negative personal breastfeeding experiences.
['Darwent|Kirsty L|KL|', 'Kempenaar|Larissa E|LE|']
D000328:Adult D001942:Breast Feeding D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D059037:Doulas D005260:Female D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D007231:Infant, Newborn D008880:Midwifery D009035:Mothers D010379:Peer Group D011247:Pregnancy D013338:Students, Nursing D006113:United Kingdom D055815:Young Adult
Breastfeeding Peer support Knowledge Attitudes Midwifery