Fathers’ needs of breastfeeding support: Perspective of health nurses

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the improvement of health education on father’s participation in breastfeeding from the perspective of maternal and child health nurses. Methods: Qualitative phenomenological research was used, and 15 maternal and child health nurses who provided breastfeeding support were invited. With semi-structured deep interviews and on-site recordings, data were analyzed through content analysis. Results: Four main themes were extracted, including ‘cultivating fathers’ awareness of participation in breastfeeding’, ‘collaboration of multiple disciplines to improve health education on breastfeeding for fathers in hospital’, ‘Simulated scenarios to develop fathers’ skills in solving breastfeeding problems’, and ‘establishing a hospital-community interface network to improve breastfeeding continuation care after hospital discharge’. Conclusions: Medical and health care departments should attach importance to guidance on health education for fathers’ breastfeeding participation, cultivate fathers’ awareness of participation in breastfeeding, provide multidisciplinary collaboration-based health education on breastfeeding for fathers from the prenatal period and improve post-discharge health education on breastfeeding. The additional education being suggested would contribute to fathers being able to play an important role in breastfeeding.