Gillian Paul, Niamh Vickers, Regina Kincaid, Denise McGuinness
{"title":"'It's far from the norm': breastfeeding beyond 1 year in the Republic of Ireland.","authors":"Gillian Paul, Niamh Vickers, Regina Kincaid, Denise McGuinness","doi":"10.1093/heapro/daae088","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Breastfeeding is the optimal form of nutrition for infants and young children. The World Health Organization recommends that babies are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life, and up to the age of 2 years or beyond in combination with complementary food. Breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates are suboptimal globally and very low in the Republic of Ireland where health promotion initiatives and healthcare professional support predominantly focus on the important phase of initiation and early months of the breastfeeding journey. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore the experiences of women who chose to breastfeed their children beyond 1 year of age in the Republic of Ireland. Fourteen women participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted. The analysis generated three overarching themes: (1) Influences on breastfeeding beyond 1 year, (2) Sustaining breastfeeding and (3) Benefits of breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Family, friends, peers, culture and commercial milk formula marketing had an influence on breastfeeding journeys. Support, determination, knowledge, bed-sharing and Covid-19 pandemic social restrictions helped to sustain breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Benefits of breastfeeding beyond 1 year such as nutrition, strengthening of emotional bonds, development of a parenting tool, and protection of child and maternal health were identified. Our findings support the need for discussions and further research on the normalization of breastfeeding beyond 1 year in the Republic of Ireland, targeted health promotion initiatives and education programmes for healthcare professionals on supporting the continuation of breastfeeding.</p>","PeriodicalId":54256,"journal":{"name":"Health Promotion International","volume":"39 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11329779/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Promotion International","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daae088","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Breastfeeding is the optimal form of nutrition for infants and young children. The World Health Organization recommends that babies are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life, and up to the age of 2 years or beyond in combination with complementary food. Breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates are suboptimal globally and very low in the Republic of Ireland where health promotion initiatives and healthcare professional support predominantly focus on the important phase of initiation and early months of the breastfeeding journey. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore the experiences of women who chose to breastfeed their children beyond 1 year of age in the Republic of Ireland. Fourteen women participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted. The analysis generated three overarching themes: (1) Influences on breastfeeding beyond 1 year, (2) Sustaining breastfeeding and (3) Benefits of breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Family, friends, peers, culture and commercial milk formula marketing had an influence on breastfeeding journeys. Support, determination, knowledge, bed-sharing and Covid-19 pandemic social restrictions helped to sustain breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Benefits of breastfeeding beyond 1 year such as nutrition, strengthening of emotional bonds, development of a parenting tool, and protection of child and maternal health were identified. Our findings support the need for discussions and further research on the normalization of breastfeeding beyond 1 year in the Republic of Ireland, targeted health promotion initiatives and education programmes for healthcare professionals on supporting the continuation of breastfeeding.
期刊介绍：
Health Promotion International contains refereed original articles, reviews, and debate articles on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. In line with the remits of the series of global conferences on health promotion the journal expressly invites contributions from sectors beyond health. These may include education, employment, government, the media, industry, environmental agencies, and community networks. As the thought journal of the international health promotion movement we seek in particular theoretical, methodological and activist advances to the field. Thus, the journal provides a unique focal point for articles of high quality that describe not only theories and concepts, research projects and policy formulation, but also planned and spontaneous activities, organizational change, as well as social and environmental development.
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