Abstract
A pilot-tested questionnaire was mailed to 325 obstetricians, pediatricians, family practitioners and general practitioners of a British Columbian maternity hospital to measure aspects relating to physicians’ attitudes toward breastfeeding counselling. Response rate was 67.3%. The measures of selfefficacy, knowledge and beliefs were added to a regression model containing measures of gender, specialty, years in practice and personal or spousal breastfeeding experience to determine whether additional variance in counselling behaviour could be accounted for. Physicians attempted to convince women to breastfeed if: 1) they believed in the immune properties of breastmilk (OR = 1.23, SE = 0.07) and 2) they were confident in their own breastfeeding counselling (OR = 1.88, SE = 0.36). Likewise, encouraging women to continue breastfeeding in the face of breastfeeding problems was related to confidence in breastfeeding counselling (OR = 1.22, SE = 0.10) and belief in the immune properties of breastmilk (OR = 2.83, SE = 0.45).
Résumé
Différents aspects relatifs à l’attitude des médecins par rapport à l’allaitement maternel ont été déterminés par un questionnaire préalablement vérifié qui a été expédié à 325 obstétriciens, pédiatres, médecins de famille et généralistes affiliés à une maternité de la Colombie Brittanique. Le taux de réponse était de 67,3 %. Les paramètres de la confiance en soi, des connaissances et des croyances ont été ajoutés au modèle de régression en tenant compte des paramètres du genre, de la specialité, du nombre d’années d’expérience et de l’expérience de l’allaitement, personnelle ou de l’épouse, pour déterminer si certaines variances pourraient être attribuées au comportement de counselling. Les médecins ont tenté de convaincre les femmes d’allaiter lorsqu’ils avaient confiance dans les qualités immunologiques du lait maternel (RRE = 1,23, ET = 0,07) ainsi que dans leur aptitude en counselling de l’allaitement (RRE = 1,88, ET = 0,36). Pour les mêmes raisons, les médecins ont encouragé les femmes à poursuivre l’allaitement si des problèmes surgissaient (respectivement RRE = 2,83, ET = 0,45 et RRE = 1,22, ET = 0,10
Footnotes
Financial support was provided by the Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia and by the British Columbia Medical Services Foundation.
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