Breastfeeding and working full time: Experiences of nurse mothers in karachi, Pakistan

• Main Authors: Naeem Zafar Sh, Irma Bustamante-Gavino M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2008-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: Breastfeeding; working full time; nurse mothers; experiences; Karachi; Pakistan
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/Vol1_Issue3_05_Zafar.pdf

B A C K G R O U N D : Culture, beliefs and practices, mother’s employment, and increasing modernization arelinked to breastfeeding. In Pakistan, some false beliefs and practices interfere with breastfeeding even amongnurses. This led to the development of this study with the focus on nurses’ breastfeeding experiences since nursesconstitute the major workforce in any health care setting and most importantly are in a position to influence breastfeeding.AIM:The objectives of this study are: (a) To explore the experiences of nurses who are working mothers and arebreastfeeding. (b) To identify the underlying problems faced by the working mothers in relation to breastfeedingpractices. (c) To develop possible recommendations in order to help nurse respondents to work more productively.M A T E R I A L - M E T H O D : A descriptive phenomenology was used to describe the experiences of nursemothers in Karachi, Pakistan, working full time and breastfeeding. Twelve mothers constitute the participants whowere selected purposively in six hospitals in Karachi. Unstructured interviews and observations were used to gatherdata guided by Colaizzi’s data analysis method.R E S U L T S : Three themes emerged from the data: positive experiences, mediating health behavior, and negativeexperiences. The participants recommended setting up a day care center to address their breastfeeding problems.C O N C L U S I O N S : Breastfeeding rises to the mothers both positive and negative experiences mediated bymothers’ health behaviors. Mothers working full time and breastfeeding find their whole experience rewarding aswell as challenging. Although they know the importance and value of breastfeeding, due to their working circumstancethey are unable to do this task, thus they made recommendations through this study to stress their negativeexperiences.