Table 1.

Summary of selected studies.

Author (Year) COUNTRY	Study Design	Study Characteristics	Specific Type of Partner Support	Impact of Partner Support	Study Limitations	Quality Assessment Outcome
Su-Ying Tsai (2014) Taiwan [52]	Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study	Participants: 608 mothers Age: 30–39 years Response rate: 72.9%	Encouragement to use lactation room and milk expression breaks	Increased breastfeeding	(i) Cross-sectional in nature (ii) Dichotomized classification for the assessment of predictors was simplistic (iii) Employed self-report for predictor measurements	Fair
Rempel et al. (2017) Canada [53]	Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study	Study 1: Participants: 64 women; 41 men (34 couples) Study 2: Participants: 80 mothers; 65 fathers (63 couples)	(i) Responsiveness—father’s sensitivity to the mother’s needs and respect for her decisions (ii) Appreciation—behaviors of encouragement and valuing the breastfeeding mother	(i) Responsiveness led to longer breastfeeding duration (ii) Appreciation led to shorter breastfeeding duration	(i) Cross-sectional in nature (ii) Issue with the stability of correlations due to small samples and large number of correlations (iii) Selection bias	Fair
Ingram et al. (2002) England [54]	Prospective cohort study	Participants: 1174 mothers Mean maternal age: 29.5 years	Giving encouragement	Uptake and continuation of breastfeeding	Failure to control for secular changes in breastfeeding practices over the duration of the study	Fair
Tohotoa et al. (2009) Australia [55]	Qualitative exploratory study	Participants: 48 mothers; 28 fathers Mean age (mothers): 27.5 years Mean age (fathers): 37 years	(i) Anticipating needs and getting the job done (ii) Giving encouragement (iii) Having a paternal commitment to breastfeeding	Successful breastfeeding	(i) Non-representative (ii) Selection bias due to self-selected sample (iii) Small sample size	Fair
Tarrant et al. (2009) Ireland [56]	Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study	Participants: 401 mothers Mean maternal age: 29.5 years	Positive postnatal encouragement to breastfeed	Breast-feeding initiation	(i) Cross-sectional design (ii) Not generalizable (iii) Selection bias	Fair
Pisacane et al. (2005) Italy [57]	Controlled trial	Participants: 280 couples 20% loss to follow-up Mean maternal age: 27.5 years	Assistance with preventing and managing lactation difficulties	Higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding	(i) Limited numbers of participants enrolled (ii) Single hospital setting (iii) Sequential rather than random allocation of the participants	Good
Susin et al. (2008) Brazil [58]	Controlled clinical trial	Participants: 586 families Control group: 201 couples Intervention group A: 192 couples with only mothers exposed to the intervention Intervention group B: 193 couples with mothers and fathers exposed to the intervention	Helping with household tasks and child care	Increased rates of exclusive breastfeeding	(i) Single hospital setting (ii) Sequential rather than random allocation of the participants	Good