Exclusive Breastfeeding, Emotionally Available Mothering at Bedtime, and Maternal Confidence Across the First Six Months
Open Access
- Author:
- Smith, Nicole
- Area of Honors:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Douglas Michael Teti, Thesis Supervisor
Alyssa Ann Gamaldo, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- breastfeeding
emotional availability
maternal confidence
mother infant relationship - Abstract:
- This study investigates the association between exclusive breastfeeding, maternal emotional availability, and maternal confidence in caregiving and feeding across the first 6 months of the infant’s life. This longitudinal observation study was based on the data collected by Project SIESTA, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5R01HD052809). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NIH federal agency that funded the SIESTA study, whose data was included in the current thesis. The study consisted of a sample of 167 participants from Centre and Dauphin counties in Pennsylvania. Mothers were classified into exclusive or non-exclusive breastfeeding groups, where exclusive breastfeeding was defined as only breastfeeding for up to 3 months postpartum. Maternal emotional availability was observed at 1, 3, and 6 months through video cameras placed in the participants’ homes at bedtime. Maternal confidence in caregiving and confidence in feeding was obtained by questionnaires at 1, 3, and 6 months. Results from this study revealed that there was no difference in emotional availability during infant bedtimes among exclusive and non-exclusive breastfeeding mothers. There was, however, a significant relationship between confidence in caregiving and confidence in feeding. For both confidence measurements, mothers who non-exclusively breastfed had low levels of confidence at 1 month and improved their confidence by 6 months, while exclusive breastfeeding mothers had high confidence across the entire 6 months. These findings suggest that whereas mothers’ emotional availability is not influenced by feeding method, maternal confidence is increased when mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first 3 months.