Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul;14(3):e12586.
doi: 10.1111/mcn.12586. Epub 2018 Jan 19.

Men's views and experiences of infant feeding: A qualitative systematic review

Sarah Earle  1 , Robin Hadley  2
Affiliations

Men's views and experiences of infant feeding: A qualitative systematic review

Sarah Earle et al. Matern Child Nutr. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Although the advantages of breastfeeding are well documented, rates for breastfeeding often fall short of international and national targets. Increasing attention has been paid to the role of men in infant feeding, but a lot of the research about men has been elicited from women, rather than from men themselves. To explore these issues further, a systematic review of the qualitative research on infant feeding was carried out, focusing specifically on men's own views and experiences. Evidence was identified by searching electronic databases (CINAL, Cochrane, PubMed, and Scopus), manually searching citations, and by searching the grey literature. Studies were included in the review if they discussed men's views and experiences of infant feeding and if they reported primary qualitative data. Twenty research papers were included in the review, and each study was summarised and then analysed thematically to produce a synthesis. Five major analytical themes were identified: men's knowledge of infant feeding; men's perceptions of their role in infant feeding; positive views on breastfeeding; negative views on breastfeeding; and men's experiences of health promotion and support. The review concludes by highlighting that although men can play an important role in supporting women, they do not have a significant role in infant feeding decisions.

Keywords: breastfeeding; health promotion; infant feeding; qualitative methods; systematic review; women's health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram showing review process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anderson, K. , Spence, M. , & Kavanagh, K. F. (2010). Roles, perceptions and control of infant feeding among low‐income fathers. Public Health Nutrition, 13, 522–530. - PubMed
    1. Avery, A. B. , & Magnus, J. H. (2011). Expectant fathers' and mothers' perceptions of breastfeeding and formula feeding: A focus group study in three US cities. Journal of Human Lactation, 27, 147–154. - PubMed
    1. Barnett‐Page, E. , & Thomas, J. (2009). Methods for the synthesis of qualitative research: A critical review. BMC Medical Research Methodologies, 9(59), 10.1186/1471-2288-9-59 [last accessed 17th August 2017]. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bar‐Yam, N. B. , & Darby, L. (1997). Fathers and breastfeeding: A review of the literature. Journal of Human Lactation, 13, 45–50. - PubMed
    1. Braun, V. , & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

Publication types