ArticleInternational breastfeeding journal2024
Getting breastfeeding started under pandemic visiting restrictions: lessons learned in Germany.
Article in International breastfeeding journal, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Visiting Hours and Visitor Numbers During the Postnatal Period: The Basis for a Patient-Centred Visiting Policy on the Postnatal Ward.Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde · 2026Article
- Development and prevalence of breastfeeding initiation in a tertiary obstetric center and its influencing factors.International breastfeeding journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic contact restrictions considerably changed maternal visiting contacts during the time in which breastfeeding is initiated. We wanted to know how maternity ward staff and mothers rated the conditions of starting breastfeeding under contact restrictions.
methodsIn the Breastfeeding in North Rhine-Westphalia (SINA) study, Germany, 2021/22, chief physicians as well as ward staff from 41 (out of 131) maternity hospitals (82 members of the healthcare sector in total) were surveyed by telephone concerning structural and practical conditions for breastfeeding support before and during the pandemic; 192 (out of 426 eligible) mothers answered an online-questionnaire about their breastfeeding experiences at 2 weeks and 2 months after birth.
resultsIn almost all of the hospitals, visits were restricted due to the pandemic, with the exception of the primary support person. After more than one year of pandemic experience, the ward staff were convinced that the restrictions were mostly positive for the mothers (97.6%) and for the ward staff themselves (78.0%). A total of 80.5% of the ward staff would maintain the restrictions beyond the pandemic. The mothers themselves mostly rated the restrictions in the hospital as being just right; moreover, many mothers voluntarily maintained the restrictions at home, at least in part.
conclusionsThe unprecedented visiting restrictions in hospitals during the pandemic were like an "experiment" born out of necessity. Restricting visiting arrangements may be an underestimated beneficial component for the development of the mother-infant dyad in perinatal breastfeeding care, particularly in healthcare systems where almost all births occur in the maternity hospital.
trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) (DRKS00027975).
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