Abstract
Introduction: All women should be offered support to breastfeed their babies to increase the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding. This study aims to assess the level of marital satisfaction and its influence to prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy in first time mothers during late pregnancy.Methods: A descriptive correlational was conducted among 128 simple randomized prim gravid women who agreed to participate and had prenatal care check-up in the health center at the time of data gathering. The instruments used were 15-item Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) to measure marital adjustment and 14-item Breastfeeding Self efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF) as a measure of breastfeeding self-efficacy. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was utilized to test the relationships between the sample’s marital adjustment scores to correlate with BFSE of the respondents. Fisher’s t test was utilized to determine the significance of correlations. A p-value of equal to or less than .05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The study revealed that the sampled mothers have a high level of marital adjustment score (112.05± 21.83). Prenatal mothers responded in the study were highly confident and have high self-efficacy in breastfeeding first child currently bearing (4.55±.51). Lastly, it was found that there is no significant correlation between marital adjustment and prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy (β=-.052, p-value=.280).Conclusion: It was found that there is a high level of marital adjustment and breastfeeding self-efficacy among sampled mothers. However, there is no significant correlation between marital adjustment and prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy. The study suggests incorporating co-parenting intervention involving father’s involvement and assistance with breastfeeding when creating interventions in breastfeeding.
Highlights
All women should be offered support to breastfeed their babies to increase the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding
It was found that there is no significant correlation between marital adjustment and prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy (β=-.052, p-value=.280)
This study aims to assess the level of marital adjustment and its influence to prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy of the first-time mothers in late pregnancy period
Summary
All women should be offered support to breastfeed their babies to increase the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding. This study aims to assess the level of marital satisfaction and its influence to prenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy in first time mothers during late pregnancy. In 2012, the World Health Assembly Resolution 65.6 endorsed a comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, which specified six global nutrition targets for 2025 (World Health Organization, 2014) It urges developing or, where necessary, strengthening nutrition policies so that they comprehensively address the double burden of malnutrition and include nutrition actions in overall country health and development policy, and establishing effective intersectoral governance mechanisms in order to expand the implementation of nutrition actions with particular emphasis on the framework of the global strategy on infant and young child feeding (Jones et al, 2014). In a study with primiparous mothers, it revealed that high level of breastfeeding self-efficacy during postpartum predicted positive emotional adjustment and fewer depressive symptoms at six weeks postpartum, as well as more exclusive breastfeeding. There are studies focused on prenatal breastfeeding selfefficacy (McKinley et al, 2019), but evidence was limited to western countries and fewer studies conducted Asian mothers especially in the Philippine context
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