Edinburgh Napier University

  Aims
The aims of this longitudinal qualitative study conducted in 2009-2010 were:
• to explore the early infant feeding experiences of mothers, including the
support offered by others along a time-line, from the antenatal period until their
infant is six months old,
• to gather data to inform the development of interventions that will aim to
improve the following outcomes: a) any breastfeeding b) exclusive
breastfeeding c) the introduction of appropriate solids at six months d) parents’
experiences of feeding their baby.
Participants and methods
Thirty six families took part, eighteen in Aberdeen and eighteen in Stirling and two
hundred and twenty face-to-face or telephone interviews took place. Two
researchers interviewed each woman between two and eight times in total, from the
last trimester of pregnancy until six months after birth. Two families withdrew after
the first postnatal interview. There were sixteen partners, eight mothers and one
sister who were nominated as significant people influencing feeding decisions and
who participated in interviews. Two health visitors nominated as significant
influences on feeding decisions by three women were each interviewed once alone.
All except one woman, when asked in pregnancy, intended to breastfeed, with the
exception having breastfed a previous child. Nineteen women were primigravida and
seventeen were multigravida. The Framework approach and software was used to
analyse the qualitative interview data.