Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy and its Relationship with Perceived Stress and Breastfeeding Practice in Mothers with Preterm Infants, Hospitalized in Al-Zahra Educational-Medical Center, 2019

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Late preterm infants are the largest group of premature infants and suffer from both short-term and long-term complications after birth. The key factor in fighting these problems is effective breastfeeding. The present study aimed to determine the breastfeeding self-efficacy and its relationship with the perceived stress and breastfeeding performance in mothers with late preterm infants. Methods and materials: In this cross sectional study, 171 nursing mothers with late preterm infants born in Alzahra Educational-Medical Center of Tabriz, Iran, who met the conditions of this study, were selected through convenience sampling. The Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES- SF) was employed to measure breastfeeding self-efficacy and 14-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS14) was used to measure the perceived stress during 24 hours after giving birth and when the child was 4 months old the breastfeeding performance was measured by the standard breastfeeding performance questionnaire. Pearson and Spearman’s correlation tests, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Multiple Linear Regression analyzed the data. Results: The mean (standard deviation) of breastfeeding self-efficacy equaled 50.0 (7.8) from the scores ranging between13-65 and the mean (standard deviation) of the perceived stress equaled to 26.5 (8.8) from the scores ranging between 0-56. The median (25-75 percentiles) of breastfeeding performance score in the mothers equaled 2.0 (1.0 to 3.0) from the scores ranging between 0-6. On the basis of multiple linear regression and through adjusting the personal-social characteristic, by increasing the score of the breastfeeding self-efficacy, the perceived stress was decreased to a statistically significant amount (B=-0.1, 95%CI=-0.3 to 0.0), however, there was no statistically significant relationship between breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding performance (p=0.418). Conclusion: Taking into account that the possibility of adjusting the breastfeeding self-efficacy and its role on the mothers’ perceived stress, developing proper strategies appears to be essential for increasing the breastfeeding self-efficacy together with the support and attention of the families and caregivers of the mother and the infant.