Abstract
ABSTRACTPurpose: Experiencing breastfeeding difficulties poses a risk for early cessation of breastfeeding and decreases the likelihood of breastfeeding a future child. To further understand breastfeeding outcomes, the aim of this study is to explain the phenomenon of breastfeeding difficulties in order to understand how women’s previous experiences of breastfeeding difficulties relate to their decisions about future breastfeeding.Methods: A reflective lifeworld hermeneutical approach was adopted. The study consisted of 15 lifeworld interviews with eight women who had previously experienced difficulties with initial breastfeeding.Results: Previously experienced breastfeeding difficulties represent an existential breastfeeding trauma in an individual woman’s life, from which there are two intertwined pathways for future breastfeeding: a fear of breastfeeding, which renders the idea of future breastfeeding unthinkable, and a longing for breastfeeding, which increases the likelihood of future breastfeeding. Fear and longing are intertwined in ambiguous ways in an individual woman’s life.Conclusion: Women with previous breastfeeding difficulties may bring negative breastfeeding experiences with them, which are etched into the woman’s being as a mother as an embodied memory. A lifeworld-led caring science perspective as a foundation for care can contribute to the development of caring practices, which grasp the existential nature of the breastfeeding trauma.
Highlights
Almost all new mothers in Sweden (95%) initiate breastfeeding, but statistics from Sweden show that only 76% exclusively breastfeed for 1 week after birth, and only 63% exclusively breastfeed for 2 months after birth (National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018)
The main interpretation consists of two parts, an empirical interpretation and a philosophical interpretation. These two parts should be seen as a whole that suggests how to explain the phenomenon of breastfeeding difficulties in order to understand how women’s previous experiences of breastfeeding difficulties relates to their decisions about future breastfeeding
This study suggests that previous breastfeeding difficulties may constitute a traumatic existential experience that a woman might carry with her in motherhood as a negative breastfeeding experience, etched into her life as an embodied memory
Summary
Almost all new mothers in Sweden (95%) initiate breastfeeding, but statistics from Sweden show that only 76% exclusively breastfeed for 1 week after birth, and only 63% exclusively breastfeed for 2 months after birth (National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018). Previous research has shown that nearly 30% of new mothers in Sweden experience difficulties, such as sore nipples, mastitis and suckling problems among others, when initiating breastfeeding, (Almgren-Tangen, Bergman, Dahlgren, Roswall, & Alm, 2012), and that this is a major cause of early breastfeeding cessation (AlmgrenTangen et al, 2012; DiGirolamo, Thompson, Martorell, Fein, & Grummer-Strawn, 2005; Odom, Li, Scanlon, Perrine, & Grummer-Strawn, 2013). Larsen and Kronborg (2013) found that mothers who had breastfeeding difficulties, which forced them to stop breastfeeding earlier than they had planned, were concerned about decisions they would have to make about breastfeeding in the future. This puts a mother in a vulnerable position that is not always supported by her surroundings.
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