Breastfeeding promotion for teen mothers

Background: Teen mothers have the lowest rates of breastfeeding of any demographic group. Although these mothers face many difficult social, cultural, and economic barriers to breastfeeding, there are few breastfeeding promotion interventions for this population. Further research is needed to identify programs that can successfully promote breastfeeding among teen mothers.

Purpose: To collect qualitative data on the values, experiences and needs of teen mothers for use in planning a new breastfeeding promotion program.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with 31 teenage mothers at a YWCA in North Carolina. The mothers were split into groups based on whether they did not breastfeed at all, breastfed only in the hospital, breastfed for less than one month, breastfed for less than two months, exclusively breastfed at least two months, and teens that were currently pregnant.

Results: Focus group results confirm that young women's experiences are influenced by factors of social ecology. However, teenage mothers who choose to breastfeed experience many of the same negative breastfeeding influences as those who formula feed. Results suggest that young women's emerging identity as mothers should be considered when developing a breastfeeding promotion program.

Discussion: This presentation reports the results of the focus groups and describes how the results will shape a new breastfeeding program that incorporates the values and experiences of teen mothers. It will also describe the process of program development, which will include the teen mothers and breastfeeding experts.