Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of social factors on actual conditions of lactation and mothers' attitudes toward breastfeeding. And the social factors which we investigated were mothers' working, their roles of child care, and their attitudes toward female roles. A questionnaire was given to 239 pairs of parents of infants in Ehime Prefecture.
The main findings were as follows :
1) The mothers' plans for lactation were influenced by the number of children they have, their family income, and the conditions of mothers' working.
2) More than 30% of the mothers had feelings of difficulty, which was related to the differences between their plans and practices. And these feelings of difficulty were related to the mothers' anxiety, the conditions of mothers' working, and the support from their husbands.
3) The parents' responses to their attitudes toward breastfeeding were factor-analyzed separately for mothers and fathers, yielding the four factors : mental and physical health of mother and child; restriction of mothers' activities; natural practice; economy and convenience. The mothers' attitudes toward breastfeeding were related to conditions of their working and their attitudes toward female roles as well as their experience of lactation.
