Rethinking social work with the nursing mother

In light of health organizations’ recommendation of breastfeeding as the best method of feeding infants, this practice has become widespread across the globe, 91% of Israeli women beginning to breastfeed after birth. While... [ view full abstract ]

In light of health organizations’ recommendation of breastfeeding as the best method of feeding infants, this practice has become widespread across the globe, 91% of Israeli women beginning to breastfeed after birth. While most public and professional attention focuses on the physical and psychological affect breastfeeding has on babies, the proposed lecture turns the scholarly and clinical spotlight on to the mothers’ emotional needs and the complex context in which the latter arise. It examines the way in which the Self-Determination Theory concepts of autonomous and controlled breastfeeding motivations predict the wellbeing or distress of nursing mothers. It also investigates female personality infrastructure prior to giving birth, exemplified in attachment tendencies, as a predictor of breastfeeding motivations and wellbeing/distress.
Data was collected from 543 women who completed self-report questionnaires during pregnancy, around eight weeks after birth, and approximately five-month after birth in a longitudinal quantitative study. The findings indicate that breastfeeding motivations that were most autonomous in nature were linked to high levels of wellbeing, controlled motivations being linked with low levels of wellbeing and high levels of distress. Anxious attachment predicted the majority of variables in the study, including controlled and autonomous breastfeeding motivations and wellbeing/distress.
Examining the subjective aspects of nursing women, the study enabled the identification of strengthening and enervating factors with respect to wellbeing/distress. It recommends that social workers’ be made aware of these factors and promote policy-practice with them in mind in order to develop services and modes of interventions sensitive to the varied needs of nursing women. They should also be encouraged to legitimize and support the informed choices made by new mothers whether they choose to breastfeed or not.