The Effect of Social Support and Workplace Breastfeeding Conditions of Mothers Working in an Education Research Hospital on Breastfeeding Period

Objective: Breast milk is considered to be natural, reference nutrition for infants. The American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization recommend that infants should be exclusively breastfed for about 6 months and breasteeding should be continued at least for 12 months as long as both the mother and the infant desire. It is known that mothers who started to work during breastfeeding period have difficulty in continuing breastfeeding due to inconvenient workplace conditions and breastfeeding breaks. Social support, known to have a role in coping with stress, has also been shown to be effective in maintaining breastfeeding. The aim of our study is to evaluate the problems faced by the mothers working in a training and research hospital related to the workplace environment and conditions and their social support. Method: The study group consisted of mothers who had children under three years of age and working in a training and research hospital. Eighteen questions prepared by the researchers, and questions in the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were addressed to the mothers participating in the study about their breastfeeding period, return time to their work, breast-feeding permission, and milking, etc. Results: Fifty-one working mothers were reached during the study period. It was seen that 29 (56.9%) working mothers used formula during breastfeeding period. When mothers exclusively breastfed their infants, and those used formula during breastfeeding period were compared, it was seen that the mothers who used formula returned earlier to work (p = 0.036). Conclusion: Study results supported that the period of maternity leave should be longer to avoid using formulas more frequently, and to support exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months. It was concluded that employers should provide more suitable conditions for breastfeeding mothers to support breastfeeding.