Breastfeeding Tips & Advice: New Moms Not Receiving Ample Guidance From Doctors

• comments
• 
• 

A new survey funded by the National Health Institutes suggests that physicians are not offering enough medical advice to new mothers about infant care and breastfeeding. 

According to HNGN, more than a thousand new mothers, who gave birth in 32 hospitals across the United States, were asked to answer the survey. The questions in the survey covered topics like breastfeeding and infant care, including immunizations, pacifier usage and sleeping positions for babies. 

The survey's respondents were made up of women who were new to motherhood with babies ranging from two months to six months old. 

In addition to neonatal care advice from doctors, the survey also analyzed the amount of advice new mothers retrieved from the media, hospital nurses and family. 

Compared to the other sources for advice, physicians and nurses seemed to give the most guidance. However, it was still a significantly low percentage, with only 20 percent of new moms reporting that they received guidance from doctors concerning breastfeeding or sleeping positions. 

The fact that mothers in general did not recieve advice on correct sleeping positions is worrisome, since properly placing babies on their backs while sleeping can significantly lower the risk of SIDS, reports HNGN.  

There are about 3,500 cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) reported every year, according to the CDC. 

Besides breastfeeding and sleeping positions, 50 percent of mothers reported that they did not receive advice regarding sleep location or pacifier use as well. Sleep location in particular is another important bit of information for mothers, as sleeping location can either prevent or cause SIDS.

On the other hand, the other sources of information for mothers did not fare well either, even though 20 to 56 percent of mothers reported getting advice through family members or media outfits. 

According to the results of the survey, most of the advice offered to new mothers from family or the media did not follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) recommendations. 

Fortunately, the study did reveal that the few physicians that did offer neonatal care advice followed the prescribed recommendations of the AAP.

The researchers of the study concluded: 

"Mothers commonly report receiving either no advice or recommendation inconsistent advice from each of the 4 sources we studied. By identifying care practices with low prevalence of recommendation consistent advice from potentially important advisors, our finding highlight opportunites for future intervention." 

Dr. Staci R. Eisenberg, one of the authors of the study and a pediatrician at the Boston Medical Center, was shocked at the results of the survey, but remains positive about the future. She believes that physicians can really make a difference in promoting infant health, if they were more active, states Reuters.