Providing Lactation Care Following Stillbirth, Neonatal and Infant Death: Learning from Bereaved Parents.

Objective: The study aimed to identify how, from the perspective of bereaved parents, hospital-based health professionals can better meet their lactation care needs. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 mothers and 7 fathers bereaved by stillbirth, neonatal death, or older infant death. Participants were recruited from three large hospitals in Eastern Australia including two with human milk banks. Qualitative thematic data analysis identified bereaved parents' lactation experiences, needs, and how parents wanted lactation care to be provided. Results: Participants experienced lactation after infant death as hard and challenging, while at the same time they received limited lactation care. The negative impact of lactation, however, could be mediated by anticipatory guidance, assistance to make sense of lactation, support to make decisions from available lactation and breast milk management options, and support with breast care for as long as required. Bereaved parents explained lactation care was best provided by health professionals they had come to know and trust rather than by a particular professional role. Care should be provided with compassion, in a manner respectful of individual circumstances, inclusive of partners, and supplemented by quality written information. When bereaved parents felt supported to manage their lactation in a manner consistent with their unique needs, lactation for some could have a positive impact on grief. Conclusion: Bereaved parents have demonstrated that comprehensive lactation care is critical to their health and well-being. Such care should be more fully incorporated into hospital-based bereavement care policies and practices.

Mothers, milk and mourning: The meanings of breast milk after loss of an infant.

Breast milk is a highly valued substance, immunologically and nutritionally, which also signifies maternal care and love for the infant. This intersection of biological and cultural qualities confers breast milk with complex meanings, which necessarily shape the experience of breastfeeding. Our research, investigating the experience of lactation after the loss of an infant, casts a novel light on these meanings. This article analyses the experience of 17 Australian bereaved mothers and 114 health professionals charged with their care. We find that while all the mothers found post-loss lactation emotionally painful, many also found redemptive meaning in their milk-production, as a bond with the lost child, as confirmation of their maternal competence and as a life giving substance that they could donate to other needy infants. These complex meanings and positive connotations were at odds with hospital cultures that regard post-loss lactation as valueless and best dealt with through medical suppression, despite the more complex insights of individual health-care professions.

Mapping Hospital-Based Lactation Care Provided to Bereaved Mothers: A Basis for Quality Improvement.

Objective: The study aimed to identify and map the factors that shape the delivery of hospital-based lactation care for bereaved mothers to inform quality improvement initiatives targeting hospital-based lactation care. Methods: Focus groups and interviews were conducted at three large hospitals in Australia with 113 health professionals including obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives, neonatal nurses, lactation consultants, social workers or pastoral care workers, Human Milk Bank (HMB) staff, and perinatal bereavement nurses. Thematic and interactional data analysis identified the nature, scope, and pattern of bereavement lactation care. Results: A bereaved lactation care pathway was generated from health professionals' reports. Bereaved lactation care, if provided, was limited to brief encounters aimed at facilitating lactation suppression. The type of lactation care offered, and any exploration of the variable biopsychosocial significance of lactation after infant death, was conditional on (i) availability of health professionals with suitable awareness, knowledge, capacity, confidence, and comfort to discuss lactation; (ii) hospital culture and mode of suppression primarily practiced; (iii) mother's breast milk being visible to hospital staff; (iv) mother expressing interest in expanded lactation management options; (v) availability of, and eligibility to, donate to a HMB; and (vi) support beyond the hospital setting being facilitated. Conclusion: Mothers should be presented with the full array of lactation management options available after stillbirth or infant death. Inclusion of evidence-based, biopsychosocial and patient-centered approaches to lactation care is urgently required in health professionals' bereavement training and in the policies of hospitals and HMBs.

The Nature and Extent of Qualitative Research Conducted With Children About Their Experiences of Domestic Violence: Findings From a Meta-Synthesis.

Domestic violence is a significant issue experienced by many children that can have a detrimental impact on their health, development, and well-being. This article reports on the findings of a meta-synthesis that examined the nature and extent of qualitative studies conducted with children about their experience of domestic violence. Studies were identified by a search of electronic databases and included gray literature. Studies were included for review if they were published between 1996 and 2016, were from countries considered as comparable Western nations to Australia and available in the English language, and reported on qualitative studies that directly engaged with children under the age of 18 years on their experiences of intimate partner violence involving one or more of their parents/carers. Forty peer-reviewed publications that reported on 32 studies were included for the review. This study was unique in that it included child participation measures to assess the quality of available studies. This article explores the contribution that research with children has made to our understandings of, and responses to, domestic violence, and provides a critique of the limitations and gaps evident in the extant qualitative research with children on the issue of domestic violence. The article considers implications for future research, policy, and practice and in particular focuses our attention on the need to engage more children more fully in participatory research in the field of domestic violence.

Lactation after infant death: an analysis of Australian healthcare agencies' online health information.

Lactation is a potent signifier of maternal love and care commonly associated with early motherhood and infant survival. It is common, however, for bereaved mothers who have recently undergone miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death to produce breastmilk. Drawing on a critical feminist lens that seeks to understand how maternal subjectivities and lactation norms are constructed through public and reproductive health information, this article tests whether lactation management options after stillbirth and infant death are comprehensively covered in Australia's health organisations' online information. A qualitative directed content analysis was conducted to critique the information provided on 21 Australian websites. Information extracted from websites was compared to a 'best-practice' Lactation After Infant Death (AID) Framework developed by the research team for the review. We found a notable absence of comprehensive lactation management information targeted directly to bereaved mothers. Moreover, the most common lactation option presented for women without a living infant was lactation suppression. This dearth of appropriate and comprehensive lactation information curtails maternal subjectivies and diverse lactation practices and further isolates women dealing with the painful contradictions of lactation after loss.

Exposed: younger mothers and breastfeeding.

This qualitative study, conducted by volunteers from the Australian Capital Territory/Southern New South Wales (ACT/SNSW) Branch of the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), explored the breastfeeding experiences of younger mothers (under the age of 26 years) in the ACT by conducting three focus groups. The study aimed to gain an understanding of how, when and where younger mothers want and need to receive breastfeeding information and support. Younger mothers provided important insights into their breastfeeding experiences, which were often characterised by judgement from health professionals and the wider public. A number of key issues were identified including: breastfeeding is far from a cultural norm in our society and as such the risks of artificial baby milk are not clearly understood by many younger mothers; younger mothers are strongly influenced by their partners, mothers and peers and they rely upon them for breastfeeding information and support. Younger mothers indicated that a number of improvements could be made to the way that breastfeeding information and support is currently provided within the ACT. The findings indicated that younger mothers (and their significant others) would benefit from receiving clear, concise and consistent breastfeeding information early on in their pregnancy, that is positive in tone, not necessarily 'young mum' specific and consistent with a 'less is more' approach. Younger mothers indicated that after the birth of their baby this breastfeeding information needs to be complemented by readily accessible, seamless, respectful support for as long as they need to establish breastfeeding and overcome any breastfeeding challenges. The focus group findings were largely consistent with the existing literature available on younger mothers and breastfeeding and provide valuable insights to all stakeholders responsible for providing breastfeeding information and support to younger mothers.