Table 1.
Focus group guide and sample questions
| Topic | Prompt or question |
|---|---|
| 1. Group introductions and infant feeding general thoughts | (To mothers) a. As we go around to each of you, please clearly state your name, age of your child (ren), or when your baby is due if you are pregnant (To professionals) a. As we go around to each of you, please clearly state your name and the capacity in which you work with mother and how long you have worked in this capacity |
| a. What influences decisions to breastfeed babies? (Probe for specific examples that may influence mothers’ breastfeeding decision: personal ideas, family, friends, media, personal experience, breastfeeding, educational material, etc.) | |
| b. What is needed to support breastfeeding? (Probe for examples of things necessary for a mother to breastfeed: help from family, experience, education, support at work, etc.) | |
| 2. Maternity leave and return to work | c. How should this topic be approached in ways that best support breastfeeding mothers? (Probe for examples of strategies and ideas for addressing breastfeeding, maternity leave, and return to work: planning return to work, requesting more maternity leave, talking with work manager or boss, space and time to pump at work, etc.) |
| d. Who should be involved? | |
| e. (If not mentioned ask) Should health professionals, family, friends or baby’s daddy have input? | |
| f. How can each of these people help support breastfeeding? (Probe for examples of others who should be involved: baby’s dad, baby’s grandmother, friend, healthcare professional including lactation consultant, peer counselor, obstetrician, mid-wife, pediatrician, primary care doctor, nurse, etc.) | |
| 3. Logistics of a breastfeeding support intervention program | a. If we were to design a program that effectively helps African American mothers start and continue breastfeeding, describe what it might look like |
| b. How would we go about it? (Probe for examples of the type of program that would work: group, individual counseling, telephone, internet, blogs, etc.) | |
| c. When would it be best to offer this to mothers? (If not mentioned probe for examples of best times: evenings, daytime, before baby is born, after birth?) | |
| d. Who might attend? (Probe for examples of who should be invited to attend: other moms with breastfeeding experience, dads, children, lactation consultant, etc.) | |
| e. Where is the best location? | |
| f. What are other practical concerns? (Probe for examples of things that program participants may need: childcare, transportation, electronic reminders, internet access, etc.) | |
| 4. Social support | a. Social support is thought to be important by some people. Others think that it can be unhelpful |
| b. Is there anything special or unique about support in the African American community that affects breastfeeding or bottle choices? | |
| c. What type of support is most needed by African American women and their families in order to breastfeed? (Probe for examples of types of practical or other support: listening, advice, information, pumping space at work, break time to pump at work, space to pump in stores or restaurants, etc.) | |
| d. From whom should the support come? (Probe for examples of formal or informal support: health professional, baby’s dad, family, friends, etc.) | |
| e. If not mentioned, prompt with: Should health professionals, family, friends or baby’s daddy have input? (Remind participants that examples of health professionals might include lactation consultant, breastfeeding peer counselor, obstetrician, mid-wife, pediatrician, primary care doctor, nurse, etc.) | |
| f. How can each of these people help support breastfeeding? | |
| 5. Additional Topics | a. Again, the purpose of this focus group is to gather information that could be used to develop and to test an intervention that addresses the barriers to breastfeeding for African American mothers |
| b. Are there any other topics or concerns we should address? | |
| c. Is there anything we should have talked about but didn’t? | |
| d. (If no specific examples given prompt with) What issues or topics have we missed? | |
| e. Once we have compiled findings, we’d like to have some participant volunteers to help us confirm findings. Please let us know if you might be interested before you leave |