Bonding has a deep meaning it refers to emotions and cognition’s towards one’s offspring. There is a belief that breastfeeding facilitates bonding, still there are only numbered studies that have empirically tested this assertion. This is one study aimed at confirming whether there is genuinely a positive association between breastfeeding and bonding and whether breastfeeding does have an impact and is protective against the negative consequences of mood and sleep disturbances on bonding.
Methodology of Survey
There was a cross-sectional survey administered to a convenience sample of mothers in Israel of newborns in the age range between one to nine months. Key features and outcomes evaluated were breastfeeding history, bonding (Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire PBQ), the mood (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale EDPS) and sleep (Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index PSQI).
The Outcome
Total participation was from two hundred seventy-one mothers in the age range of 21 to 46 years, in the survey. From the participants 65.7 percent reported current breastfeeding, 22.1 percent reported past breastfeeding while 12.2 percent never nursed. The PBQ got correlated with both the EPDS and the PSQI. There was an association of greater daytime fatigue from breastfeeding, but not with any other sleep problem, and was not all associated with bonding. The negative outcome was confirmed using Bayesian analysis demonstrating that the probability for the null hypothesis was 4.5 times more than the hypothesized effect. In addition, the hierarchical regression showcased a positive relationship between bonding, daytime fatigue and depression symptoms only among the women who were breastfeeding at the moment.
Conclusion
The outcome of the finding highlights that among healthy mothers, breastfeeding may not be an important factor in mother-infant bonding, neither is it protective against the negative impact of mood symptoms and bonding difficulties. These results have been shown theoretically and methodologically.
