• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.208-245
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• 2017

Background: Attitudes toward breastfeeding in public are one potential barrier to optimal breastfeeding rates and durations. Method: Questions about breastfeeding experience and attitudes toward breastfeeding in public were asked in face-to-face interviews as part of the Korean Academic Multimode Open Survey (KAMOS), May-July, 2017. The response rate was 65.8% (2000 respondents nationwide). Results: A majority of Koreans disagreed (1 or 2 on a 4-point scale) with the statement "Women should not breastfeed their child in open, public places" (53.9%) and agreed (3 or 4 on the 4-part Likert scale) with the statements "I do not feel uncomfortable seeing women breastfeed their child in open, public places" (64.0%) and "Breastfeeding a baby, instead of letting the baby cry, in public places is better for other people" (71.8%). However, despite these generally positive attitudes, the majority also said that they would not breastfeed in public (57.4% of women) or, in the case of men, would not want a close female relative to do so (63.8% of men). Breastfeeding in public was positively correlated with the duration of breastfeeding. People were more positive about breastfeeding in public if they: were parents; did not use formula and breastfeeding a similar amount; had children who had been breastfed in public; were older; were Buddhists rather than Christians. An attempt was made to compare attitudes toward breastfeeding in public and breastfeeding durations internationally, but was inconclusive due to not perfectly comparable data. Conclusion: Our results may be useful in planning public health campaigns in South Korea or future attempts at international comparisons to better understand and address the effect of public opinion regarding breastfeeding in public on breastfeeding rates and durations.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.114-123
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• 2023

Objectives: Current social norms in the United States do not favor breastfeeding in public. This study examined associations between college students' explicit and implicit emotions of breastfeeding in public and their intention to support public breastfeeding. Methods: Twenty-two student participants viewed images of a breastfeeding woman with a fully-covered, fully-exposed, or partially-exposed breast in a public setting. After viewing each image, participants' explicit emotions (self-reported) of the image were measured using a questionnaire and their implicit emotions (facial expression) were measured using FaceReader technology. We examined if a relationship exists between both emotions [toward images] and intention to support breastfeeding in public using correlation techniques. We determined the relative influence of two emotions on the intention to support breastfeeding in public using regression analyses. Results: The nursing images depicting a fully-covered breast (r = 0.425, P = 0.049 vs. r = 0.271, P = 0.222) and fully-exposed breast (r = 0.437, P = 0.042 vs. r = 0.317, P = 0.150) had stronger associations with explicit emotions and intention to support breastfeeding in public compared to implicit emotions and intention. Breastfeeding knowledge was associated with a positive explicit emotion for images with partial- (β = 0.60, P = 0.003) and full-breast exposure (β = 0.65, P = 0.002). Conclusions: Explicit emotions appear to drive stated intentions to support public breastfeeding. Further research is needed to understand the disconnect between explicit and implicit emotions, the factors that influence these emotions, and whether stated intentions lead to consistent behavior.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.465-475
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• 2020

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the association between birth patterns (defined in terms of birth order and interval) with delayed breastfeeding initiation in Indonesia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out using data from the Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey 2017. The weighted number of respondents was 5693 women aged 15-49 years whose youngest living child was less than 2 years old. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to evaluate associations between birth patterns and delayed breastfeeding initiation after adjusting for other covariates. Results: This study found that 40.2% of newborns in Indonesia did not receive timely breastfeeding initiation. Birth patterns were significantly associated with delayed breastfeeding initiation. Firstborn children had 77% higher odds of experiencing delayed breastfeeding initiation (adjusted odds ratio, 1.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 3.04; p<0.05) than children with a birth order of 4 or higher and a birth interval ≤ 2 years after adjusting for other variables. Conclusions: Firstborn children had higher odds of experiencing delayed breastfeeding initiation. Steps to provide a robust support system for mothers, especially first-time mothers, such as sufficient access to breastfeeding information, support from family and healthcare providers, and national policy enforcement, will be effective strategies to ensure better practices regarding breastfeeding initiation.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.678-685
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• 2001

Although breastfeeding is recognized to be vital to the health and well-being of children and women, the rate of breastsfeeding among Korean women has continuously decreased. One barrier to breastfeeding has been identified to be associated with health care providers. Health care professionals do not give sufficient advice and encouragement, next do hospitals provide supportive environments for breastfeeding by separating infants from mothers or providing formula. The purpose of this study was to investigate prenatal breastfeeding education and infant feeding practices in public health centers and baby-friendly hospitals. A telephone survey was carried out on 57 public health centers located in the Seoul and Chungcheong areas and 13 baby-freindly hospitals from February to April in 2000. Among the public health centers, 43.8% offered periodic prenatal education for pregnant women who visited the centers. Most of them used leaflets or pamphlets developed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare or UNICEF. Twenty six percent of the public health centers developed their own educational materials. All of the 13 baby-friendly hospitals gave additional fluids to infants, did not allow mothers and infants to stay together 24 hours a day, and did not foster the establishment of breatfeeding support groups among the mothers. Most of the baby-friendly hospitals gave artificial teats, did not help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth. Findings indicate that current practices even in the baby-friendly hospitals are not consistent with the '10 steps to success breastfeeding'. Therefore, deliberate efforts should be made to incorporate adequate breastfeeding education into prenatal program in both public health centers and hospitals, and create environments to support breastfeeding in hospitals, even in baby-friendly hospitals.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2006

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the rate and duration of breastfeeding. Methods: We analyzed the data from the year 2000 Korea National Fertility Survey that was collected through direct interviews. In particular, the mothers who delivered their last child and the child was under 1 year of age from January 1998 to June 2000 (N=1,066) were analyzed via a logistic model to assess the factors affecting the breastfeeding rate. Among the study subjects, those who had initiated breastfeeding (N=740) were analyzed through Cox's proportional hazard model to evaluate the factors affecting the duration of breastfeeding. Results: The multivariate logistic model showed that the delivery type and the baby's birth-weight have a statistically significant influence on the breastfeeding rate. Women who delivered their babies through Cesarean section were less likely than others to breastfeed. In contrast, the women whose babies weighed 2.5Kg or more were more likely than others to breastfeed. The results obtained from the survival analysis are as follows: the higher the mother's education level, the shorter is the breastfeeding duration. The mother's work status played a significant role in the early termination of breastfeeding. Women aged 35 or older showed a longer breastfeeding duration than the younger age groups, whereas the maternal age was not a significant factor in affecting whether or not a mother would breastfeed. Conclusions: Reducing the cases of operative delivery (Cesarean section) and low weight births, enlightening young and highly educated women on breastfeeding and improving the environment for breastfeeding on the job are important strategies to encourage women to breastfeed.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.345-353
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• 2002

A survey was carried out to investigate the breastfeeding knowledge, breastfeeding rates ultra related factors among women in Seoul and the Chungbuk area, in order to obtain baseline data for the development of an education program on breastfeeding. Subjects included 671 lactating mothers who visited public health or pediatric centers, between December, 1999 and February, 2000 and were interviewed using a questionnaire. The results are as follows: In the breastfeeding knowledge, most of the subjects (93.4%) know correctly that 'breastfeeding is better for a baby's emotional development than formula feeding,'whereas only half of the subjects (51.7%) answered correctly the question on whether 'formula is more nutritious than breastmilk.'The breastfeeding rates were about 57%, 40%, 33% and 12%, respectively for baby's aged 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. These results showed that the breastfeeding rate rapidly decreased with the baby's age. Lower breastfeeding rates were associated with high educational level (college graduate and above), high income, mothers'employment, no experience of attending breastfeeding education programs, and no planning on breastfeeding prior to pregnancy. There was a significant relationship between the level of knowledge and breastfeeding practice; the higher the knowledge score, the higher the breastfeeding rate. In conclusion, an education program should be developed and offered for each low breastfeeding rate group, in order to promote breastfeeding.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.4829-4837
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• 2014

The present systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess any association between breastfeeding and the risk of ovarian cancer. A systematic search of published studies was performed in PUBMED and EMBASE and by reviewing reference lists from retrieved articles through March 2013. Data extraction was conducted independently by two authors. Pooled relative risk ratios were calculated using random-effect models. Totals of 5 cohort studies and 35 case-control studies including 17,139 women with ovarian cancer showed a 30% reduced risk of ovarian cancer when comparing the women who had breastfed with those who had never breastfed (pooled RR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.64-0.76; p = 0.00), with significant heterogeneity in the studies (p = 0.00; I2 = 76.29%). A significant decreasd in risk of epithelial ovarian cancer was also observed (pooled RR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.61-0.76). When the participants were restricted to only parous women, there was a slightly attenuated but still significant risk reduction of ovarian cancer (pooled RR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.69-0.83). For total breastfeeding duration, the pooled RRs in the < 6 months, 6-12 months and > 12 months of breastfeeding subgroups were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.77-0.93), 0.73 (95% CI: 0.65-0.82) and 0.64 (95%CI: 0.56-0.73), respectively. Meta-regression of total breastfeeding duration indicated an increasing linear trend of risk reduction of ovarian cancer with the increasing total breastfeeding duration (p = 0.00). Breastfeeding was inversely associated with the risk of ovarian cancer, especially long-term breastfeeding duration that demonstrated a stronger protective effect.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.192-202
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• 2003

This descriptive study aimed to determine the effects of community based health education program for pregnant women on their confidence in labor and breastfeeding. Data were obtained using several questionnaires and administered to 174 pregnant women who have participated (n=49) and have not participated(n=125) in health education program, and 244 mothers of infants who lived in one city in Kyunggi province. Summaries of finding were as follows; First, pregnant women who have participated in health education program showed significantly higher score in confidence in labor than those who have not. Also, confidence in labor was different according to the level of education. Second, pregnant women participated in health education program showed higher score in knowledge and attitude on breastfeeding, but the differences were not significant. Knowledge on breastfeeding was higher in multipara. More positive attitude on breastfeeding was found in working mothers and highly educated mothers. Third, $54.1\%$ of mothers continued breastfeeding over six months. Main reasons for discontinuing breastfeeding were lack of breast milk amount, and health problems in infants and mothers. In this study, we could identify the positive effects of health education program for pregnant women provided by public health center, and find the related factors of confidence in labor and breastfeeding. Community based health education program for pregnant women, especially for vulnerable group should be expanded.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.495-505
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe growth and development of breast-fed infants and to depict experiences of breastfeeding mothers. Method: The data were collected from 145 infants and mothers participating in A Healthy Breastfeeding Infant Contest. The instrument used for this study was a self-report questionnaire completed by the participants and an evaluation record completed by the examiners. Results: The more specific results of the study are as follows: the weight of the infants was much higher than the Korean Standards. The height of infants was not significantly different from the Korean Standards except for 5 month old male infants. The results of Denver II showed all 145 infants were classified as normal. The breastfeeding experiences in mothers was as follows; 31.7% of the mothers breastfed for 5 months, 48.3% wanted to breastfed as long as the baby wanted. The mothers pointed out that the difficult problem in breastfeeding was insufficient breastfeeding room in public areas. What mothers want to know related to breastfeeding was, breastfeeding duration, time to begin solid food and recommended amounts, time to discontinue breastfeeding at sleep time and appropriate methods. Conclusion: Mothers' experience in breastfeeding was positive. We should provide mothers a comfortable place in public areas for breastfeeding. Based on the result of the study it's propose that health professionals must intervene in breast care during both antepartum and early postpartum periods.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reason of interruption and the knowledge of breastfeeding. The samples of 117 mothers who have the babies between age from 1 month to 12 months were selected from one university hospital and one public health care center in J City. The data were collected with the questionnaire during the period from the January. 5. 2002 through January. 30. 2002. Analysis was done by using frequency. percentage. t-test. ANOVA. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. The comparison of the method of feeding by general characteristics. income state(p= .019), rearing supporters(p=.026) and infant age(p=.03) have shown significant difference as the variables affecting breastfeeding practice rate. Breastfeeding rate were 24.8%. mixed- feeding type, 14.5%. milkfeeding type. 60.7%. 2. The major reason which breastfeeding be done was 'for health of baby'. In the period of breastfeeding, a large number of mothers answered' up to. 6 months'. The major reason of breasttfeeding interruption was 'insufficient quantity of breastmilk'. 3. The mean of knowledge on breastfeeding by feeding patterns were the highest in the breastfeeding group(F= 10.228, p= .000). 4. In a grade of each item on knowledge of breastfeeding, over 80% of mothers wrongly answered in two items; components comparison between breastmilk and cow's milk and when the mother fell sick. whether she have to be feed breastmilk. or not. In the conclusion. this study revealed that knowledge of breastfeeding promoted practice of breastfeeding. However we suggest that systemic and supportive breastfeeding program for promoting the knowledge and the practice rate of breastfeeding have to be provided by nurses.