This study explores how African American women understand and experience menopausal transition. Data were collected from 14 women in individual interviews and a focus group of seven participants. ...Transcripts were analyzed using content analysis. Black Feminist Thought and Womanist Thought were the frameworks used to understand the experiences of participants. Key themes emerged including silence as a form of survival, resilience amidst the chaos, socialization for self-preservation and empowerment, and reshaping and reclaiming womanhood. African American women need to be approached from a culturally sensitive care model to address their care during this phase and to optimize health outcomes.
The purpose of this article is to present a review of literature regarding factors that influence breastfeeding intentions, initiation, and duration in the African American population. Research ...related to health disparities experienced by African Americans in the United States, as well as research regarding the protective benefits of breastfeeding for those specific health disparities, are also presented. Community and institutional interventions and promotional campaigns aimed at increasing initiation and duration of breastfeeding in the African American population are discussed. Future research regarding African American women's breastfeeding experiences using Black feminist thought as a theoretical foundation is recommended.
Aim
To report the development and psychometric testing of the Supportive Needs of Adolescents Breastfeeding Scale.
Background
Nurses worldwide can influence adolescent mothers' decisions to initiate ...and continue breastfeeding through understanding their social support needs in the early postpartum. Review of the literature reveals a lack of instruments that measure adolescents' perceptions of supportive nursing behaviours when initiating breastfeeding.
Method
An instrument development and psychometric evaluation study was conducted. In phase 1, scale items were developed from the literature using social support theory. Eight lactation consultants evaluated the scale's content validity in phase 2. During phase 3, the psychometric properties of the scale were tested using item analysis, scale reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. A convenience sample of 101 adolescents, aged 15–20 years old, was recruited during their postpartum stay at three hospitals in the USA between July 2009–July 2010.
Results
Content validity index was 0·82. Alpha estimate of internal consistency was 0·83. Principal components analysis resulted in a 3 factor scale that explained 48% of the total variance: Practical support, Informational support and Miscellaneous.
Conclusion
The findings suggest evidence of the scale's adequate internal consistency. The factor analysis suggests two clear underlying dimensions of support: instrumental/emotional/appraisal and informational/emotional/appraisal, and a third miscellaneous dimension related to immediate skin‐to‐skin care and mothers' support persons. Further exploration of the possible global implications of the scale's dimensions is needed.
Mothers with chronic illnesses are often discouraged from breastfeeding by health care professionals, most often because of use of medication and fear of adverse effects in the infant. Most ...medications taken by mothers are not contraindicated for breastfeeding. Understanding factors that affect transfer of medications into human milk can help providers give appropriate guidance to mothers with chronic illnesses who want to breastfeed.
Black women in Texas experience high rates of adverse maternal outcomes that have been linked to health inequities and structural racism in the maternal care system. Birth centers and midwifery care ...are highlighted in the literature as contributing to improved perinatal care experiences and decreased adverse outcomes for Black women. However, compared with White women, Black women underuse birth centers and midwifery care. Black women's perceptions in Texas of birth center and midwifery care are underrepresented in research. Thus, this study aimed to highlight the views of Black women residing in Texas on birth centers and midwifery care to identify their needs and explore ways to increasing access to perinatal care.
Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 pregnant and postpartum Black women residing in Texas. Questions focused on the women's access, knowledge, and use of birth centers and midwifery care in the context of their lived maternal care experiences. Interview transcripts were reviewed and analyzed using inductive, qualitative content analysis.
The Black women interviewed all shared experiences of discrimination and bias while receiving obstetric care that affected their interest in and overall perceptions of birth center and midwifery care. Participants also discussed financial and institutional barriers that impacted their ease of access to birth center and midwifery care services. Additionally, participants highlighted the need for culturally sensitive and respectful perinatal health care.
The Black women interviewed in this study emphasized the prevalence of racism and discrimination in perinatal health care encounters, a reflection consistent with current literature. Black women also expressed a desire to use birth centers and midwifery care but identified the barriers in Texas that impede access. Study findings highlight the need to address barriers to promote equitable perinatal health care access for Black women.
The low rate of breastfeeding among African American women in the United States is a poorly understood, persistent disparity. Our purpose in this study was to gain an understanding of how African ...American women experience breastfeeding in the context of their day-to-day lives. The Sequential-Consensual Qualitative Design (SCQD), a 3-stage qualitative methodology aimed at exploring the cultural, personal, and political context of phenomena, was used to explore the experiences of African American women who felt successful with breastfeeding. An integration of qualitative content analysis and Black feminist theory was used to analyze the data. Themes that emerged from Stage-2 data analysis included self-determination, spirituality and breastfeeding, and empowerment. In Stage 3 of the study, participant recommendations regarding breastfeeding promotion and support initiatives for African American breastfeeding were categorized into three themes, including engaging spheres of influence, sparking breastfeeding activism, and addressing images of the sexual breast vs. the nurturing breast.
This study's purpose was to evaluate an intervention to facilitate grandmothers' knowledge and support of breastfeeding. A pilot study with a quasi-experimental two-group posttest design was used to ...evaluate whether the intervention made a difference in grandmothers' knowledge, attitudes, and intent to recommend breastfeeding. The 26 grandmothers in the intervention group attended A Grandmothers' Tea program; the 23 grandmothers in the control group received written information. The intervention group had greater posttest knowledge scores than the control group but had no significant differences in attitudes or intent. However, a significant difference was evident between the attitude scores of grandmothers who breastfed their infants and of grandmothers who did not breastfeed their infants regardless of receiving the intervention.
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