Thesis-2005-Noor.pdf (6.75 MB)
Infant feeding practices and postnatal depression of South Asian women living in the United Kingdom
thesis
posted on 2014-09-03, 10:56 authored by Sayeda Z. NoorThe work reported in this thesis deals with the infant feeding practices and postnatal
depression of South Asian women living in the United Kingdom. It is made up of two
independent studies - the first one is conducted on the Bangladeshi women living in
Loughborough with particular emphasis on infant feeding while the second one is
conducted on essentially the Bangladeshi and the Pakistani women living in the Sure
Start Westgate area of Newcastle Upon Tyne with particular interest in maternal mental
health. The methodology of the work involves questionnaire surveys on women in
Loughborough and Newcastle (n=28 and n=86 respectively). In addition to these,
qualitative data were collected during home visits and focus group discussions for
mothers. Both of these groups are relatively disadvantaged in terms of mcome,
employment and education with the Newcastle group being slightly worse off.
Findings from the study highlight the complexity of infant feeding practices for this
group of women. Although some specific observations such as delayed initiation of
breastfeeding, earlier (than recommended) introduction of solid food or the presence of
smokers in a household etc. may possibly be explained by lack of education and poorer
knowledge of English, but the impact of socio-cultural and religious influences, which
are found to be very dominant, is not so obvious. An interesting, and previously
unreported, significant association has been found between infant feeding methods and
depression indicators. Contrary to popular beliefs, gender of the child is not a significant
matter in general, but shows some association with the feeding method. Belief in
supernatural forces and incidence of traditional practices are associated with ethnicity and
the mothers' place of birth. In terms of health service and community support there are
areas of concern, such as: low attendance at antenatal classes; communication problems
due to language and lack of articulation and the attitude of both health professionals and
mothers in respect of understanding of each other's culture.
The study highlights the importance of educating the whole community, instead of only
the mothers, to raise awareness of better infant feeding, to lead a healthier lifestyle and to
prevent misconceptions. Both the mothers and health professionals share the joint
responsibility of improving the scenario of service delivery and uptake.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Publisher
© Sayeda Zaika NoorPublisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2005Notes
A Masters Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en