Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Yeon Bai, PhD candidate, Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, 116 HPER Building, 1025 East Seventh St., Bloomington, IN 47405, (812) 856-0704, yebai@indiana.edu, Chao-Ying Joanne Peng, PhD, Counseling and Educational Psychology, Indiana University, 4050 W. W. Wright Education Building, Bloomington, IN 47405, and Alyce D. Fly, PhD, Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, 116 HPER Building, 1025 East Seventh St., Bloomington, IN 47405.

Mothers who work outside the home initiate breastfeeding at the same rate as mothers who stay at home. Breastfeeding continuation rates, however, decline in mothers who return to work. Researchers have shown that workplace breastfeeding support is an important factor for working mothers' breastfeeding continuation. The purpose of this study was to develop and examine psychometric properties of a workplace breastfeeding support scale (WBSS). A convenience sample consisting 66 volunteer mothers from clinics in Central Indiana participated in the study. Mothers were 6 months to 12 months postpartum, worked outside home, and had initiated breastfeeding. The mean age of the sample was 27.7 years old (SD=5.8). Eighty percent of women were White, 56% were never breastfed when they were babies, and 70.8% worked over 21 hours a week. Most of the women (87.7%) continued breastfeeding through 6 months. Mothers who had never been breastfed as infants and who were younger than 20 years old were more likely to have stopped breastfeeding before 6 months. The scale showed moderate internal consistency and split-half reliability, 0.77 and 0.83 respectively. Construct validity was evident in successful factor analysis. Four dimensions identified by the factor analysis measured the four concepts: breastfeeding friendly workplace environment, workplace technical support, facility support, and peer support. These four factors accounted for 62.1% of variance of breastfeeding continuation behavior. The WBSS may be used in future lactation research and evaluation of worksite lactation programs.

Learning Objectives:

• List four dimensions of mothers' perceptions of workplace breastfeeding support
• Identify the reliability and validity of the workplace breastfeeding support scale (WBSS)
• Apply the WBSS to evaluate worksite lactation support programs.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Worksite

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered