Table 4.
Captions and comment discussions associated with images posted on Instagram using the top four breastfeeding‐related hashtags from January 9–16, 2017
| Image caption elements | No. (%) of total caption elements (N = 871) | % of captions (N = 712) |
|---|---|---|
| Reflecting positively on breastfeeding or pumping | 146 (16.8%) | 146 (20.5%) |
| Praising products, customers, or stores | 134 (15.4%) | 134 (18.8%) |
| Reflecting on parenthood but not breastfeeding | 124 (14.2%) | 124 (17.4%) |
| Reflecting on the struggles of breastfeeding | 100 (11.5%) | 100 (14.0%) |
| Other | 80 (9.2%) | 80 (11.2%) |
| Neutral reflection on breastfeeding (comments without valuation) | 76 (8.7%) | 76 (10.7%) |
| Praising or complimenting of baby generally | 68 (7.8%) | 68 (9.6%) |
| Website or blog promotion including prizes, giveaways, and so forth | 39 (4.5%) | 39 (5.5%) |
| Reflecting on other personal experiences (not parenthood or breastfeeding) | 26 (3.0%) | 26 (3.7%) |
| Asking a question (nonrhetorical) | 24 (2.8%) | 24 (3.4%) |
| Offering advice or tips on breastfeeding | 16 (1.8%) | 16 (2.2%) |
| Critiquing society and raising social issues around breastfeeding | 15 (1.7%) | 15 (2.1%) |
| Offering advice or tips generally | 9 (1.0%) | 9 (1.3%) |
| Offering advice or tips on motherhood, womanhood | 8 (0.9%) | 8 (1.1%) |
| Supporting women who cannot breastfeed | 4 (0.5%) | 4 (0.6%) |
| Critiquing society and raising social issues generally | 2 (0.2%) | 2 (0.3%) |
| Raising social issues related to stigmatizing women who cannot breastfeed | 0 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) |
| Negative reflection on breastfeeding in public | 0 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) |
| Comment discussion elements | No. (%) of total discussion elements (N = 8,856) | % of discussions (N = 712) |
|---|---|---|
| Praising or complimenting (“great,” “love it,” etc.) | 3,101 (35.0%) | 653 (91.7%) |
| Including another name (Instagram user's name, twitter name, etc.) | 2,418 (27.3%) | 569 (79.9%) |
| Thanking | 645 (7.3%) | 332 (46.6%) |
| Other | 488 (5.5%) | 242 (34.0%) |
| Reflecting on personal experiences related to struggles of breastfeeding | 372 (4.2%) | 140 (19.7%) |
| Requesting information (asking nonrhetorical questions) | 368 (4.2%) | 223 (31.3%) |
| Expressing empathy and/or motivating (“sorry for you,” “you can do it,” etc.) | 298 (3.4%) | 157 (22.1%) |
| Reflecting on personal experiences related to parenthood but not breastfeeding | 260 (2.9%) | 84 (11.8%) |
| Reflecting positively on personal breastfeeding experiences | 243 (2.7%) | 107 (15.0%) |
| Recommending products | 214 (2.4%) | 110 (15.4%) |
| Giving advice or tips but not recommending products | 133 (1.5%) | 76 (10.7%) |
| Expressing desire to follow account | 98 (1.1%) | 90 (12.6%) |
| Reflecting positively on the act of breastfeeding (not personal reflection) | 88 (1.0%) | 46 (6.5%) |
| Reflecting on society negatively | 50 (0.6%) | 16 (2.2%) |
| Reflecting on other personal experiences (not parenthood or breastfeeding) | 36 (0.4%) | 14 (2.0%) |
| Disagreeing with image, caption, or another user | 18 (0.2%) | 11 (1.5%) |
| General complaining | 11 (0.1%) | 10 (1.4%) |
| Reflecting on society positively | 8 (0.1%) | 3 (0.4%) |
| Critiquing or expressing discomfort about breastfeeding | 4 (0.0%) | 3 (0.4%) |
| Critiquing or expressing discomfort about breastfeeding in public | 3 (0.0%) | 3 (0.4%) |
Note. Categories are not mutually exclusive; a caption or comment may contain multiple elements. After removing videos and duplicate images, 712 unique images qualified for comment analysis by having six or more comments predominantly in English. Each image had one caption (containing one or more caption elements) and at least six comments (each containing one or more discussion elements).