Experiences of breastfeeding during COVID-19: Lessons for future practical and emotional support
File(s)mcn.13088.pdf (280.54 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Brown, Amy
Shenker, Natalie
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown and social distancing led to changes to breastfeeding support available to women in the United Kingdom. Face-to-face professional support was reduced, and face-to-face peer support was cancelled. Anecdotal media accounts highlighted practices separating some mothers and babies in hospitals, alongside inaccurate stories of the safety of breastfeeding circulating. Meanwhile, new families were confined to their homes, separated from families and support networks. Given that we know breastfeeding is best supported by practices that keep mother and baby together, high-quality professional and peer-to-peer support, and positive maternal well-being, it is important to understand the impact of the pandemic upon the ability to breastfeed. To explore this, we conducted an online survey with 1219 breastfeeding mothers in the United Kingdom with a baby 0-12 months old to understand the impact of the pandemic upon breastfeeding duration, experiences and support. The results highlighted two very different experiences: 41.8% of mothers felt that breastfeeding was protected due to lockdown, but 27.0% of mothers struggled to get support and had numerous barriers stemming from lockdown with some stopped breastfeeding before they were ready. Mothers with a lower education, with more challenging living circumstances and from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds were more likely to find the impact of lockdown challenging and stop breastfeeding. The findings are vital in understanding how we now support those women who may be grieving their loss of breastfeeding and are affected by their negative experiences and how we can learn from those with a positive experience to make sure all breastfeeding women are better supported if similar future events arise.
Date Issued
2021-01
Date Acceptance
2020-09-10
Citation
Maternal and Child Nutrition, 2021, 17 (1), pp.1-15
ISSN
1740-8695
Publisher
Wiley Open Access
Start Page
1
End Page
15
Journal / Book Title
Maternal and Child Nutrition
Volume
17
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Maternal & Child Nutrition published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32969184
Grant Number
MR/S017437/1
Subjects
COVID-19
breastfeeding
breastfeeding support
formula feeding
lockdown
maternal mental health
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
ARTN e13088
Date Publish Online
2020-09-23