PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study: Breastfeeding can be tougher for women when pregnancy is unplanned

2012-02-08
(Press-News.org) Women who did not plan to get pregnant are much more likely to stop breastfeeding within three months of giving birth, according to a study published in the journal Current Anthropology. The research suggests that women whose pregnancies were unplanned often experience more emotional and physical discomfort with breastfeeding compared to women who planned to get pregnant.

More than 40 percent of the women in the study, which focused on mothers from low-income neighborhoods in São Paulo, Brazil, had stopped exclusively breastfeeding by three months, despite the fact that all of the women had intended to breastfeed for at least that long. The World Health Organization and the Brazilian government recommend that women should breastfeed exclusively at least for a baby's first six months.

Older women and women who were less satisfied in their relationships with partners and family breastfed exclusively for shorter periods, the research found. But by far the strongest predictor of shorter breastfeeding duration was unplanned pregnancy. "Women who had a baby after an unplanned pregnancy were ten times as likely to regularly feed the baby foods other than breast milk by 12 weeks compared to women whose pregnancies were planned," said Alanna Rudzik, an anthropologist at Durham University in the U.K. and the study's author.

Previous research has uncovered broad social and demographic factors that influence breastfeeding, such as income, education, and employment, Rudzik says. But her study combined quantitative methods with up to seven in-depth interviews with each of the women in the study to get at the personal experiences that influenced her breastfeeding decisions. Women in the study were interviewed once before giving birth, and every two weeks afterward until the 12 week mark.

"The ethnographic data revealed that the negative feelings that women have about unplanned pregnancy likewise incline them to strongly ambivalent feelings towards breastfeeding," Rudzik said. "The interviews showed that women who had not planned to become pregnant had difficulty accepting their new role as a mother, and this expressed itself in part through strong resistance to the extremely close physical connection required by breastfeeding."

This resistance came through in the way that women spoke about breastfeeding. Women who had unplanned pregnancies were more likely to talk about the physicality of breastfeeding as being unpleasant or difficult. Rudzik quoted one participant as saying "when you're breastfeeding her you feel her there sucking, the milk coming out. Ah, it's horrible." And another as saying, "I feed, feed, feed, and she sucks, sucks, sucks, and she still wants more! She only stops crying to open her mouth [to breastfeed]."

In contrast, Rudzik writes, women with planned pregnancies "embraced full breastfeeding as the epitome of maternal love and sacrifice" as it is usually presented in Brazilian clinics. "Notably they reveled in the physicality of the connection between themselves and their infants."

"I think the strongest bond is during breastfeeding, né?" said one mother. "It's very good. It's a moment between you and her, né? … It's very good having someone there sucking your milk."

These differences suggest that "resistance to unplanned motherhood and to the physicality of breastfeeding may be an important determinant of women's decisions about how to feed their babies," Rudzik concludes.

Rudzik hopes her insight into women's subjective experiences might offer a practical guide to organizations that promote breastfeeding. Rates of unplanned pregnancy are extremely high in the area where the research was conducted, and have been shown to be related to structural inequities in education, income and employment. "Sensitizing health workers to the internal pressures faced by women who experience unplanned pregnancy provides on important way to improve breastfeeding promotional programs," she writes.

### Alanna Rudzik, "The Experience and Determinants of First-Time Breast-Feeding Duration among Low-Income Women from São Paulo, Brazil." Current Anthropology 52:1 (February 2012).

The research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Current Anthropology is a transnational journal devoted to research on humankind, encompassing the full range of anthropological scholarship on human cultures and on the human and other primate species. Communicating across the subfields, the journal features papers in a wide variety of areas, including social, cultural, and physical anthropology as well as ethnology and ethnohistory, archaeology and prehistory, folklore, and linguistics. It is published through a partnership between the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the University of Chicago Press.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Drinking large amounts of soft drinks associated with asthma and COPD

2012-02-08
A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that a high level of soft drink consumption is associated with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Led by Zumin Shi, MD, PhD, of the University of Adelaide, researchers conducted computer assisted telephone interviewing among 16,907 participants aged 16 years and older in South Australia between March 2008 and June 2010 inquiring about soft drink consumption. Soft drinks comprised Coke, lemonade, flavored mineral water, Powerade, and Gatorade etc. Results showed that one in ten adults drink ...

Scripps research and technion scientists develop biological computer to encrypt and decipher images

Scripps research and technion scientists develop biological computer to encrypt and decipher images
2012-02-08
LA JOLLA, CA -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology have developed a "biological computer" made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips. Although DNA has been used for encryption in the past, this is the first experimental demonstration of a molecular cryptosystem of images based on DNA computing. The study was published in a recent online-before-print edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie. Instead of using traditional computer hardware, a group ...

Largest Health and Wellness Company Expands Offerings and Announces Company Name Change to Wilkins Solutions

2012-02-08
The nation's largest health, fitness, recreation, and amenities distributor has changed its name from Wilkins Fitness Enterprises to Wilkins Solutions Enterprises. No longer just selling commercial fitness equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals, and strength equipment, Wilkins' offerings now include playground equipment, flooring, rehab equipment, patio furniture, and ADA compliant pool lifts in addition to their previous lines. To reflect its wider diversity of offerings, the holding company has formally announced a change in its name. The name change comes on the ...

Fall of Communism changed mathematics in US: New study

2012-02-08
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 brought an influx of Soviet mathematicians to U.S. institutions, and those scholars' differing areas of specialization have changed the way math is studied and taught in this country, according to new research by University of Notre Dame Economist Kirk Doran and a colleague from Harvard. Titled "The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians," the study will appear in an upcoming edition of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. "In this paper, we examine the impact of the ...

Justifying insurance coverage for orphan drugs

2012-02-08
How can insurers justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year on "orphan drugs" – extremely expensive medications for rare conditions that are mostly chronic and life-threatening -- when this money could provide greater overall health benefit if spread out among many other patients? Those spending decisions reflect the "rule of rescue," the value that our society places on saving lives in immediate danger at any expense. But the broad application of the rule of rescue will be increasingly difficult to support as "personalized medicine" produces ...

Post surgical phone support improves outcome following knee replacement

2012-02-08
SAN FRANCISCO -- Poor emotional health and morbid obesity are associated with less functional gain following total knee replacement (TKR) surgery. In the new study, "Can Telephone Support During Post-TKR Rehabilitation Improve Post-op Function: A Randomized Controlled Trial," presented today at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), approximately 180 patients were categorized by gender, body mass index (BMI) and emotional health. Each patient randomly received either emotional telephone support by a trained behavioral specialist, ...

Molecular path from internal clock to cells controlling rest and activity

Molecular path from internal clock to cells controlling rest and activity
2012-02-08
PHILADELPHIA – The molecular pathway that carries time-of-day signals from the body's internal clock to ultimately guide daily behavior is like a black box, says Amita Sehgal, PhD, the John Herr Musser Professor of Neuroscience and Co-Director, Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Now, new research from the Sehgal lab is taking a peek inside, describing a molecular pathway and its inner parts that connect the well-known clock neurons to cells governing rhythms of rest and activity in fruit flies. Sehgal is ...

How early breast tumors become deadly: A small group of molecules might hold the answer

2012-02-08
Some early-stage breast cancers are potentially harmless, but others invade surrounding healthy tissue and become deadly. This study has identified a small pattern of molecules that highlights important differences between early-stage breast tumors and invasive, deadly ones. The findings might lead to a way to identify early tumors that will likely become invasive. COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have discovered a restricted pattern of molecules that differentiate early-stage breast tumors from invasive, life-threatening cancer. They also found a similar molecular signature ...

NASA satellite sees tropical storm Cyril a strong, compact storm

NASA satellite sees tropical storm Cyril a strong, compact storm
2012-02-08
Tropical Storm Cyril was known as "11P" has been strengthening since February 6, and still appears very compact on infrared NASA satellite data. In the morning hours of February 7 (local time Vanuatu) Cyril was located south of the island of Vavau in the Kingdom of Tonga. All warnings for Niue and Tonga have now been cancelled. During the morning hours of February 7, Cyril picked up speed and is moving to the southeast at 28 knots (~32 mph/~52 kph). Cyril's maximum sustained winds were near 45 knots (~52 mph/~83 kph). Those tropical-storm-force winds only extended out ...

44 percent of postmenopausal women with distal radius fracture have low levels of vitamin D

2012-02-08
SAN FRANCISCO – Wrist fractures, also called distal radius fractures (DRF), are among the most common osteoporosis-related fractures occurring on average 15 years earlier than hip fractures. As vitamin D deficiency has recently been linked with muscle weakness, increased fall risks, and bone fractures, investigators sought to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among post menopausal women with DRF. The study, "Hypovitaminosis D in Postmenopausal Women with a Distal Radius Fracture," was presented today at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Signs identified that precede sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in young people

Discovery of bacteria's defence against viruses becomes a piece of the puzzle against resistance

Pre-eclampsia is associated with earlier onset and higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors

Warwick astronomers discover doomed pair of spiralling stars on our cosmic doorstep

Soil conditions significantly increase rainfall in world’s megastorm hotspots

NK cells complexed with bispecific antibody yield high response rates in patients with lymphoma

Planetary health diet and mediterranean diet associated with similar survival and sustainability benefits

Singapore launches national standard to validate antimicrobial disinfectant products

Molecular stool test could improve detection of tuberculosis in adults with HIV

Suspected fibrocartilaginous embolus in Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus)

Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

[Press-News.org] Study: Breastfeeding can be tougher for women when pregnancy is unplanned