Last Modified

• March 19, 2019

Creator

• Nickel, Nathan C.
  • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health

Abstract

• Background. The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are a set of hospital policies and practices, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, that support mothers in achieving recommended breastfeeding behaviors. Few hospitals in the United States practice the Ten Steps. This dissertation provides evidence to inform incremental implementation of the Ten Steps to improve breastfeeding practices. Methods. Data are from the Breastfeeding Friendly Healthcare project and the Infant Feeding Practices Study II. A multi-site qualitative study of Breastfeeding Friendly Healthcare hospitals explores the theory of "Organizational Readiness to Change" vis-a-vis implementing the Ten Steps. A quasi-experimental design with multiple-case study methods is used to evaluate of the Breastfeeding Friendly Healthcare project. Data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study are used to examine whether the common practice of not providing the care outlined in the Ten Steps creates a barrier to achieving recommendations for breastfeeding duration. Inverse propensity score weights are used with a parametric survival model using a log-normal distribution to estimate the effects. Results. Baseline factors that may influence a hospital's readiness to implement the Ten Steps organize under the two dimensions for "Organizational Readiness to Change," collective efficacy and collective commitment. The Breastfeeding Friendly Healthcare project resulted in increased achievement of certain Steps: 1 (Policy), 2 (Training), 5 (Teach breastfeeding), and 6 (No supplementation) and increased hospital breastfeeding rates. The Infant Feeding Practices Study II analyses showed that not providing the care in the combination of Steps 4 (Early initiation) and 9 (No pacifiers) resulted in the largest decrease in breastfeeding duration: 11.8 weeks. Not providing other combinations of Steps resulted in decreased duration: Steps 3 (Prenatal education) and 4 (Early initiation)--an 8.6-week decrease; and Steps 4 (Early initiation) and 8 (Hunger cues)--a 5.4-week decrease.

Date of publication

• December 2011

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.17615/27qq-ge93

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Note

• "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Maternal and Child Health"

Advisor

• Labbok, Miriam

Language

• English

Publisher

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Place of publication

• Chapel Hill, NC

Access

• Open access

Parents:

This work has no parents.

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