My name is Denise Kowalski. I am a nursing student at the University of North Dakota. I am interested in how fathers' attitudes towards breastfeeding can influence the mothers' decisions not to nurse. The United States lacks behind other countries in breastfeeding, although it has been proven that breastfeeding is superior to bottle-feeding. Therefore, I am wondering what impact fathers have on breastfeeding. The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General (2000) reported that only 64% of American mothers breastfeed in the early postpartum period, with only 29% still breastfeeding 6 months after birth. Only 19% of African-American mothers were still breastfeeding at six months. According to Shepherd, Power, and Carter (2000) fathers of bottle-feeding babies were found to have limited knowledge of health benefits of breastfeeding to both mothers and infants. Fathers of both bottle and breast-feeding babies were also found to be more embarrassed than their partners about mothers in general breastfeeding in front of non-family members. Research by Susin et al. (1999) was performed to see if parental breastfeeding knowledge increases breastfeeding rates. Their study was prompted by other studies which indicated that men felt that breastfeeding was bad for the breasts, made breasts ugly, and interfered in the couple's sexual relationship. Their study showed that when couples received adequate information on breastfeeding, their knowledge on breastfeeding increased as did the duration of breastfeeding. Other studies also concluded that mothers' perceptions of fathers' attitudes have a great influence on them. Can you please share some of the experiences you have had with fathers? For example, what are the fathers' attitudes when you invite them to breastfeeding counseling sessions? Have you heard many negative or positive comments from fathers about breastfeeding? Any response you can give on this subject would be greatly appreciated! Thank you. Sources: Arora, S., McJunkin, C., Wehrer, J. & Kuhn, P. (2000). Major factors influencing breastfeeding rates: Mother's perception of father's attitude and milk supply. Pediatrics Electronic Pages 106 (5): e67. Retrieved February 18, 2001 from World Wide Web: http://www.pediatrics,org/cgi/content/full/106/5/e67 Office of the U.S. Surgeon General (2000). Surgeon general releases first comprehensive framework to increase breastfeeding rates and promote optimal breastfeeding practices. The Office on Women's Health-US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved February 18, 2001 from Word Wide Web: http://www.4woman.gov/Breastfeeding/press.htm Shepard, C. K., Power, K. G. & Carter, H. (2000). Examining the correspondence of breastfeeding and bottle-feeding couples' infant feeding attitudes. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 31 (3), 651-660. Susin, L. R., Giugliani, E. R., Kummer, S. C., Maciel, M., Simon, C. & daSilveira, L. C. (1999). Does parental breastfeeding knowledge increase breastfeeding rates? Birth, 26 (3), 149-156. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html