This paper discussed three research articles and one professional online resource regarding interventions to increase adolescent breastfeeding, how relationships with maternal grandmothers and professionals affect infant feeding, and reliability of breastfeeding self-efficacy scores for predicting breastfeeding success. Study participants (n=537) consisted of adolescent mothers ranging from 15-19 years old, with one study listing participants as <20 years old. Dennis, Heaman, and Mossman (2011) suggest breastfeeding self-efficacy can be accurately measured, used to predict breastfeeding success, and influenced by education and interventions. Drawbacks of the chosen articles include statistical inconsistencies, lack of a common definition
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Still unclear is how to tailor programs to adolescent development and help maternal grandmothers become an effective support. More study of the prenatal breastfeeding curricula should be done to determine effectiveness. The interventions of Wambach et al. study did not prove effective enough in initiation and exclusivity to be used as is.
Mothers who were breastfed themselves had higher BSES and showed increased breastfeeding rates in other studies (Dennis et al., 2011, p. 269). Perhaps this is due to maternal grandmother support and/or breastfeeding being viewed by that family as normal. Maternal grandmothers, especially those who reside with adolescent mothers, may be gatekeepers to increased breastfeeding and interventions should target them (Bica and Giugliani, 2014, p. 44). Adolescent mothers may defer to their mothers’ ways of child rearing due to undeveloped self-efficacy. Self-efficacy may continue to be underdeveloped due to co-parenting provided by a residential maternal grandmother. Increasing self –efficacy may benefit families and society, expanding beyond breastfeeding into other parenting and self-care
Still unclear is how to tailor programs to adolescent development and help maternal grandmothers become an effective support. More study of the prenatal breastfeeding curricula should be done to determine effectiveness. The interventions of Wambach et al. study did not prove effective enough in initiation and exclusivity to be used as is.
Mothers who were breastfed themselves had higher BSES and showed increased breastfeeding rates in other studies (Dennis et al., 2011, p. 269). Perhaps this is due to maternal grandmother support and/or breastfeeding being viewed by that family as normal. Maternal grandmothers, especially those who reside with adolescent mothers, may be gatekeepers to increased breastfeeding and interventions should target them (Bica and Giugliani, 2014, p. 44). Adolescent mothers may defer to their mothers’ ways of child rearing due to undeveloped self-efficacy. Self-efficacy may continue to be underdeveloped due to co-parenting provided by a residential maternal grandmother. Increasing self –efficacy may benefit families and society, expanding beyond breastfeeding into other parenting and self-care