Attitudes and Barriers of Polish Women towards Breastfeeding-Descriptive Cross-Sectional On-Line Survey

Background: Breastfeeding is the gold standard in infant nutrition. Successful breastfeeding depends on many factors, including the help of medical personnel in teaching breastfeeding, the need for professional work, and breastfeeding-friendly places in public spaces. The main goal was to identify various barriers among mothers to breastfeeding. Methods: This study used a quantitative descriptive research design. We recruited 419 mothers aged at least 18 years old through social media. Results were analysed using Pearson's chi-squared and Fisher's tests of independence for pairs of dependent and independent variables. Results: Most often, women gave birth at the age of 25-30, had one or two children, and attended higher education. Almost half of them lived in a large city and gave birth to a child by caesarean section. A total of 83.1% of mothers planned to breastfeed, but not all of them were able to do so for various reasons. One-third of them felt sorry for themselves that they had to change their feeding method. The majority of mothers did not receive sufficient help in the hospital in terms of learning how to breastfeed (61%), did not use the help of a lactation consultant (67%), and answered that there was no lactation consultant in their place of residence (65%). Only 43.2% of mothers returned to work without ceasing breastfeeding. A total of 42% of mothers experienced feelings of embarrassment when breastfeeding in a public place. The most frequently indicated barrier to breastfeeding in a public place was the lack of a suitable location where a woman would feel comfortable, calm, and intimate. Conclusion: There are various barriers towards breastfeeding: too few lactation consultants, problems with breastfeeding when the mother wants to return to work, and unfriendly places for breastfeeding in public spaces. Efforts must be made to support mothers in breastfeeding.