|
Breastfeeding is strongly recommended for full-term infants. Ideally, breast milk should be practically the only source of nutrients for the first four to six months for most infants (Evans, Lyons and Killien, 1986). The nutritional, immunological, psychological and economical advantages of breas￢tfeeding are well documented in our literature. Yet, the incidence of breastfeeding has varied consider￢ably over time (Beske and Garvis, 1982). From 1955 to 1971, there was a progressive decline in breast feeding in America. But, 33.4% of all infan￢ts in 1975 and 45.1% of all infants in 1978 were breas￢t-fed in America. So there was a resurgence in its incidence through 1978 (Martinez and Naleezienski, 1979). Moreover, many health care professionals have tried to encourage mothers to maintain breas￢tfeeding at least until 4 months of age, and much lit￢erature reports how to increase and maintain breas￢tfeeding (Jenner, 1988 ; Holt, 1983). However, in Korea, there was a progressive de￢cline in breastfeeding after 1970 and only 20-30% of infants were breast -fed in 1990 (The Korean Nur￢ses´ Association News, 1992). Also, there were no signs to indicate an increase in the incidence of breastfeeding. So the Korean Governmental and the non-govermental organizations, including the Kor￢ean Nurses´ Assoc ation, initiated the "Breastfeed￢ing Promotion Movement". They have begun to pro￢vide in-service programs for nurses and to change hospital routines (The Korean Nureses´ Association News, 1992). Both the successes and failures of breastfeeding have been studied and many factors for both have been cited. Beske and Gravis(1982) reported that women who breastfeed frequently expressed disap￢pointment toward the hospital nurses. Hart, Bax, and Jenkins(1980) reported that health care profes￢sionals should have an important role to play in the management of breast feeding. And yet, many nurses still have not introduced the practices that are known to be helpful in the es￢tablishment of breastfeeding (Houston and Field,
|