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    Resisting stigma: the role of online communities in young mothers' successful breastfeeding.
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2024-03-06) Severinsen C; Neely E; Hutson R
    BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates are shaped by complex and interrelated determinants across individual, interpersonal, community, organisational, and policy spheres. Young mothers, however, face a double burden of stigma, being perceived as immature and incompetent in their mothering and breastfeeding abilities. In this study, we aimed to understand the experiences of young mothers who exclusively breastfed for six months and beyond and explore their experiences of stigma and active resistance through social media. METHODS: In 2020, in-depth telephone interviews about breastfeeding experiences were conducted with 44 young mothers under age 25 in Aotearoa New Zealand who breastfed for six months or longer. Participants were recruited via social media. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. RESULTS: Analysis yielded four themes on young mothers' negotiation of breastfeeding and support. The first three themes revealed young mothers' encounters with socio-cultural contexts. They faced negative judgments about maturity and competence, adverse guidance to supplement or cease breastfeeding, and an undermining of their breastfeeding efforts. The fourth theme showed how young mothers sought alternative support in online environments to avoid negative interactions. Online spaces provided anonymity, convenience, experiential knowledge and social connections with shared values. This facilitated identity strengthening, empowerment and stigma resistance. CONCLUSION: Our research highlights the importance of online communities as a tool for young mothers to navigate and resist the societal stigmas surrounding breastfeeding. Online spaces can provide a unique structure that can help counteract the adverse effects of social and historical determinants on breastfeeding rates by fostering a sense of inclusion and support. These findings have implications for the development of breastfeeding promotion strategies for young mothers and highlight the potential of peer support in counteracting the negative impacts of stigma. The research also sheds light on the experiences of young mothers within the health professional relationship and the effects of stigma and cultural health capital on their engagement and withdrawal from services. Further research should examine how sociocultural barriers to breastfeeding stigmatise and marginalise young mothers and continue to reflect on their socio-political and economic positioning and how it can exacerbate inequities.
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    Determinants of successful breastfeeding by young mothers in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Polglaze, Rebekah Leigh
    Background: International research has shown that younger mothers are less likely to initiate/maintain breastfeeding (BF) than older women. Optimising BF maintenance in young mothers is important because early cessation of BF has been associated with negative health outcomes for the infant, which may extend beyond infancy into adulthood. Despite this, little is known about the facilitators of successful BF in this group. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that enabled a group of mothers who gave birth at a young age to successfully breastfeed for at least 4 months. Objective: To gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that led to a successful breastfeeding experience in mothers who gave birth at a young age. Methods: Seventeen positive deviants were identified. These were mothers who gave birth under the age of 25 years, who had successfully BF for at least 4 months. Participants were recruited through various support groups and breastfeeding networks. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in person or over the phone with each of the seventeen mothers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, which enabled theme identification. Demographic information was also collected using a short questionnaire. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data obtained from each mother’s breastfeeding experiences. Interpretative phenomenology was used to extract themes from the transcripts, these were then double-checked by two researchers in the research team. Results: Participants were located throughout the North Island of New Zealand (NZ). Eleven mothers identified themselves as NZ European, three mothers identified as NZ European and Māori, and one mother identified as NZ European and Hawaiian. The mothers had given birth between the age of 15 through to 24 years and these births occurred between 2004 and 2017. Despite purposive sampling, of mothers who had successfully BF, participants identified core barriers to BF. These barriers were explored in depth before enablers of BF could be identified and examined. The key barriers include lack of breastfeeding knowledge, expectations, which differed from the lived experience, the quality of the initial support for BF, lack of ongoing support for BF and initial difficulties with the practice BF. Once the core barriers to BF had been fully explored, it was possible to identify and examine the enablers of successful BF. It became evident through the data analysis that the mothers found alternative solutions to overcome these barriers. These solutions were categorised into three key enablers, resilience in the face of adversity, a positive breastfeeding culture and the economy of BF. These factors facilitated the mothers to overcome the barriers they were faced with, which enabled them to successfully breastfeed. Conclusion: Intrinsic motivation amongst positive deviants appears to be a driver of information and support seeking behaviour, which enhances self-efficacy and breastfeeding resilience amongst young mothers.
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    The politicisation of motherhood : silencing sole mothers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2013) Neill-Weston, Frances
    In most OECD countries adolescent child-bearing and child-rearing is regarded as the forerunner of social, economic, employment and educational disadvantage particularly for young sole mothers receiving State-provided benefits. The National-led government has argued that the cost of social welfare benefits, an estimated $7.6 billion in 2008/2009, is no longer sustainable. Towards the end of 2012 following recommendations from a government-appointed Welfare Working Party, the social welfare system was restructured to 'encourage' recipients to search for paid employment by restricting their opportunities for support if they did not. This study explored how young sole mothers experienced mothering, and made snese of the processes and consequences of the National-led government's reforms, in a socio-political environment that overtly prioritises paid work. Using thematic analysis of narratives obtained from unstructured interviews with 10 adolescent sole mothers attending a teen parent education unit in the greater Wellington area, the study also sought to understand the ways in which sole mothers are silenced on political issues affecting their futures. The research is based on feminist principles of empowerment of women and social justice and is situated within Michel Foucault's postulations that Governments, their institutions and their representatives, structure actions and use language to discipline and silence individuals and groups to maintain normative power and control. Themes from participants' narratives included an unambiguous preference for hands-on/full-time mothering with support as needed; intractable difficulties in coping with inadequate DPB benefits with social isolation as a consequence; an acceptance of the need to obtain paid work, but only when their child is settled and ready; a determination to obtain further qualifications in order to achieve a better life for their child and themselves coupled with a largely unrecognised resilience.
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    Attachment theory and music therapy : what was the relevance of attachment theory to a student's music therapy programme for 'at-risk' mothers and their babies : an exegesis submitted to Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Music Therapy
    (Massey University, 2013) Ridley, Helen
    This qualitative secondary analysis research project sought to explore the relevance of attachment theory as it might apply to a music therapy programme set up and run within a residential service for ‘at risk’ mothers and their babies. The explicit purpose of the music therapy programme was to assist the mothers in bonding with their babies. The researcher was a student music therapist on placement at the facility, involved in weekly one-to-one sessions with a total of nineteen young women and their babies, over the time that each was resident at the facility. The music therapist also ran some weekly group sessions (mothers with babies) as part of the facility’s mandatory education programme. The music therapy programme took place over twenty-two weeks, with a two week break after the first ten weeks. The research analysis commenced on completion of the programme. Thematic analysis was used to look at two types of data; data from the placement (including clinical notes and personal reflective journal), and literature on attachment theory. There was an initial review of selected literature on attachment theory and music therapy. The researcher/student music therapist then carried out an inductive qualitative secondary analysis of the data that had been generated as a standard part of her practice over the period of the student placement. This was followed by a further examination of attachment theory literature to confirm key aspects of the theory. The findings from the inductive analysis were then looked at in the light of those identified key features of attachment theory. The research findings showed many strong links between key concepts of attachment theory, and the patterns that emerged from the placement data, manifesting on a number of different levels. However some patterns might be more usefully explained and/or elucidated by other theories. Findings suggested that attachment theory provided a useful framework and language for observing and understanding the interactive behaviours and external and personal structures that appeared to work for or against mother-infant bonding. In addition, the music therapy programme seemed a particularly suitable vehicle for promoting positive mother-infant bonding. However it was found that although the music therapy programme may have been helpful in a positive mother-infant bonding process, there was no evidence to suggest that this would necessarily extend to promoting a secure attachment relationship, given the personal, structural and legal factors associated with the high ‘at-risk’ context. An attachment-based music therapy programme may well have a more useful role to play in a lower risk context where mothers and babies remained for longer in the facility, and where the programme could continue throughout the women’s transition into the community and beyond.
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    "He tapu te whare tangata" : support for young Maori mothers during pregnancy, birth and motherhood : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Goodwin, Deborah Waireka Tuhi
    The focus of this research is to explore the experiences of six young Maori mothers as they perceive them, in particular looking at their experiences of support or lack of it during pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Research shows that extra social support improves the experience of pregnancy, delivery and early motherhood (Oakley. 1992) but also that there is a lack of support often felt at times in the lives of mothers. Little is known, in a formal sense, of young Maori mothers' experiences of support and this research aims to understand and make sense of these experiences. The study also uses an holistic Maori perspective which relates the health and wellbeing of Maori society to historical, structural and cultural factors in an attempt to explain or make links with the present experiences of young Maori mothers. Issues that affect support of Maori women including colonisation and the breakdown of whanau, hapu, iwi, are explored. The impact these factors have had on Maori women are discussed and establish a setting from which the lives of the women can be viewed. The research grew from work with young mothers in the community and aims to empower those involved and collectively negotiate theory. For this reason a qualitative approach is used in the form of in-depth, open ended interviews and hui. The main findings are that the first pregnancy was an extremely difficult time for the women and was often characterised by a lack of emotional support from partners and often family, combined with a lack of material resources and support. The study showed the special need of support for teenage mothers because of their often disadvantaged or impoverished material circumstances. It also showed that extended whanau support was often used especially after the birth of the baby, however judgemental attitudes got in the way of helping. Though informal support was preferred, community support was also helpful, especially for those who did not have a lot of assistance from whanau. The women's place in their whanau, culture and society showed the impact of a number of macro-social processes such as colonisation, assimilation and urbanisation which had resulted in the loss of Maori culture and the low socio-economic position of many of the women and their whanu. The study showed the great stress that is often placed on whanau who are often confined to a low socio-economic status and have few resources. The strength and maturity of the women, however, was a positive outcome of the hardship and difficult circumstances they experienced. The conclusions for policy and practise are that there is a necessity for information, advocacy and many kinds of support for young Maori mothers which needs to be offered in a caring and non-judgemental manner.