Breastfeeding Benefits & Barriers: Lack of Confidence

Why would a woman choose not to breast feed her infant?

What are your thoughts?

The vast majority of women know that breastfeeding is the best way to feed their baby ( Zimmerman, 1996 ).

Work by Best Start ( Bryant, 1992 ) used social marketing theory and focus groups to interview women and found that major barriers to breastfeeding included:

Lack of confidence

Many women felt that they would be unable to make enough milk for their baby or that they would be unable to successfully breastfeed their baby because their sisters did not make enough milk or their mother reported that she could not breastfeed her children successfully.

Lack of confidence can also be associated with shortened duration of breastfeeding. A study of women delivering infants in New Haven found that a lack of confidence in ability to breastfeed longer than 2 months was found to be associated with with stopping breastfeeding before 2 weeks of age (relative risk of 2.80) and before 2 months of age (relative risk of 11.7) ( Ertem, 2001 ).