Australian foster carers' views of supporting maternal breastfeeding and attachment in out-of-home care

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding supports infant health, growth and development, and promotes maternal attachment and sensitive caregiving. Maternal separation due to child protection concerns can result in termination of breastfeeding with associated adverse outcomes. How to preserve breastfeeding when infants are placed in out-of-home care is an issue of concern.

Objective: To consider the views of foster carers towards provision of breastmilk and breastfeeding for infants in their care.

Participants and setting: Foster carers (including kinship carers), in Australia, who had cared for at least one infant in the years 2013-2018 completed an online survey.

Methods: Foster carer's views were collected via an online survey and subjected to content analysis.

Results: Respondents (n = 184) expressed mixed views about; mothers breastfeeding during contact visits, increased frequency of contact visits for breastfeeding; and the provision of expressed breastmilk to infants in their care. Concerns were raised about the safety of breastmilk from mothers abusing substances and the value of breastfeeding if reunification was not possible. Because of these concerns, some carers discarded expressed breastmilk and resisted frequent contact. Conversely, breastfeeding was also viewed positively as a way for mothers to maintain attachment with their infants, where reunification of the mother-infant dyad was the goal.

Conclusions: This study highlights foster carers' view of breastfeeding as a facilitator of attachment between mothers and their infants. While fosters carers were largely supportive of breastfeeding as a way to improve infant health and facilitate mother-infant attachment, they held concerns regarding the safety of breastmilk supplied to them.

Keywords: Attachment; Breastfeeding; Foster care; Mother-infant dyad; Out-of-home care.