Aim: This article provides a concept analysis of anticipatory guidance regarding breastfeeding-related pain and establishes a definition to inform the concept's practical use.
Background: Breastfeeding-related pain is a barrier to achieving optimal breastfeeding outcomes, which can impede maternal and infant health. Education through anticipatory guidance that addresses breastfeeding-related pain can improve breastfeeding outcomes, but no formal definition is currently available for practitioner use.
Design: Walker and Avant's protocol for concept analyses was employed.
Data source: A comprehensive literature review was conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and OMNI. Search terms included anticipatory guidance, breastfeeding, pediatrics, nursing, and lactating. This identified 379 articles, of which six addressed anticipatory guidance for breastfeeding-related pain.
Review methods: Inclusion criteria asked that literature be available in English and published between 2000 and 2020.
Results: Three key characteristics of anticipatory guidance regarding breastfeeding-related pain were identified: timing, content, and intention. Antecedents included maternal intention to breastfeed and interaction with a healthcare provider. Consequences included improved breastfeeding outcomes, enhanced maternal understanding of challenges, and maternal empowerment in relation to pain management.
Conclusions: Anticipatory guidance about breastfeeding-related pain can empower women to sustain breastfeeding in spite of challenges, thus prolonging the breastfeeding period, and subsequently improving infant nutrition and health outcomes.
Keywords: Walker and Avant; anticipatory guidance; breastfeeding; concept analysis; maternal-child health; pain.
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