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. 2018 Jun 15:13:22.
doi: 10.1186/s13006-018-0166-9. eCollection 2018.

Exploring breastfeeding support on social media

Nicole Bridges  1 , Gwyneth Howell  1 , Virginia Schmied  1
Affiliations

Exploring breastfeeding support on social media

Nicole Bridges et al. Int Breastfeed J. .

Abstract

Background: Lack of breastfeeding support is often cited by mothers as one of the key reasons for premature weaning. The experiences and perceptions of breastfeeding mothers in a range of contexts and their support needs have been studied, but there has been little exploration of the specific breastfeeding topics that women are investigating via social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, and how breastfeeding peer supporters respond to queries about breastfeeding concerns on a SNS.

Methods: This online ethnography took place in the Australian Breastfeeding Association's (ABA) closed Facebook groups. These groups have been created for breastfeeding mothers to seek and provide support to their peers. All wall posts, comments and images for 15 of these groups were captured over a four-week period between 21 July and 17 August 2013.

Results: The data were collected on a total of 778 wall posts with a total of 2,998 comments posted into the initial wall posts. Analysis revealed that 165 (21%) of these wall posts were queries and 72 (44%) of the queries were specific breastfeeding questions. Twelve breastfeeding topic areas were identified, and the top three topic areas were further analysed for not only their content but the nature of informational and emotional support provided to the community members.

Conclusions: The closed Facebook groups hosted by the ABA provided both informational and emotional support that appeared to be facilitated by an authentic presence from both trained peer breastfeeding counsellors and other mothers. The group administrators played a vital role in both responding to the queries and overseeing the discussions to ensure they adhered to the ABA's Code of Ethics.

Keywords: Authentic presence; Breastfeeding; Ethnography; Facebook; Facilitative style; Online; Peer support; Social network; Social networking sites.

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Conflict of interest statement

Nicole Bridges is a full-time lecturer in public relations and is also a part-time PhD candidate at Western Sydney University, researching online social networking and breastfeeding support. She has over 25 years’ experience in the retail marketing and public relations field. Nicole has been an active volunteer with the Australian Breastfeeding Association for over 15 years and holds a Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education, plus a Certificate IV in Training and Education. Nicole was also recently announced as the winner of the Mary Paton Research Award 2015. Gwyneth Howell (Ph. D., University of Western Australia) is an Associate Professor of digital and social communication at Western Sydney University, Australia. Her research focuses on crisis and disaster management and response techniques, social and digital communication, public policy, and covers a variety of topics (including natural disasters, corporate social responsibility, education, and urban animal management). She has published in journals including the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Global Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Emergency Management and Public Relations Review. Virginia Schmied is Professor of Midwifery and Director of Research in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University and holds a Visiting Professorship at University of Central Lancashire (UK). She has a strong national and international reputation in the field of maternal and child health and her research addresses the infant feeding and breastfeeding, social and emotional health and well-being of women and men in the transition to parenthood, and researching improvements in service delivery and professional practice. She is particularly interested in how relationship-based care leads to improved health outcomes for mothers, babies and their families.Approval for the study was provided by the Australian Breastfeeding Association and Western Sydney University, Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number H9010). All participants were issued with written information about the study and signed a consent form before the interviews and focus groups taking place. They were assured of the voluntary nature of participation, that they could withdraw at any time, and that their interview and focus group data would be treated confidentially.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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