J Korean Acad Womens Health Nurs.  1999 Nov;5(3):379-388.

Primiparous Couples' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding Breastfeeding

• Kang NM

Abstract

Breastfeeding is an excellent way of feeding infants and continues to be an important source of nutrition and antibodies for infants. Although breast-feeding is believed to be important, the rate of breastfeeding among Korean women is very low. One reason for the low breastfeeding rate is that the health professionals in the past have given little practical help couples to overcome difficulties encountered during breastfeeding. The promotion of breastfeeding has recently become a high priority among health professionals because of the undisputed physiological, psychological, social, economic, and nutritional benefits. Fathers have been found to influence the course of breastfeeding, but no one has conducted a systematic investigation into in and included fathers perspectives of breastfeeding in Korea. It is important to find strategies to solve the problems by assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice of breastfeeding with fathers as well as mothers. The purpose of this research is to find ways to promote primiparous(first child) couples's breastfeeding by assessing their general knowledge, attitude and practice of it. More specifically its purposes is to identify the relationship between knowledge, attitude, practice and the background factors of breastfeeding of primiparous couples in order to promote and support breastfeeding. The data will help health professionals to guide first-pregnancy couples to prepare and overcome any difficulties encountered during breastfeeding. Data were collected through a questionnaire which included both structured and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was composed referencing earlier literature, studies and surveys. This survey was made postpartum 2-3 days after childbirth on 96 couples. The numbers of subjects for data analysis were selected 51 couples through pilot screening test. Data were coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences : Cronbach's alpha coefficient, T-test, ANOVA, Stepwise pearson's correlation coefficient. The relations between the variables of breastfeeding were examined using a Pearson's correlation coefficient. This study showed that, the internal validity of the instrument was tested by Cronbach's alpha. The result was : mother knowledge 0.72, mother attitude 0.88, and father knowledge 0.70, father attitude 0.92, practice 0.76 and planning of breast feeding 0.95. The average age of mothers in the sample was 28.9 years old, and the average age of fathers in the sample was 31.3 years old. The other descriptive informations available included. the study also found that fathers were more important than doctors or nurses. However results of the study indicate that there were no differences between father and mother knowledge of breastfeeding(t=-0.39, p=0.698), and father attitude was statistically significant higher than mother attitude of breastfeeding (t=2.24, p=0.030). In analysis, the variable 'practice' with breastfeeding was the relationship with mother knowledge (p=0.031) and mother attitude(p=0.015). In this study, the correlation between one couple' knowledge and attitude was not significant. Primiparous couples surveyed in the postpartum period regarding knowledge, attitude and practice about breastfeeding might be affected by recall bias, the effects of the euphoria of the first 24-48 hours postpartum, but these variables were not examined. This study results add to the body of knowledge about nursing care for breastfeeding mothers and fathers. This indicates that a need for education about breastfeeding and, that fathers be included in it as well as mothers.

MeSH Terms

Antibodies
Bias (Epidemiology)
Breast Feeding*
Education
Euphoria
Family Characteristics
Fathers
Female
Health Occupations
Humans
Infant
Korea
Mass Screening
Mothers
Nursing Care
Parturition
Postpartum Period
Surveys and Questionnaires
Social Sciences
Statistics as Topic
Antibodies