Use of new technologies and promotion of breastfeeding: integrative literature review

Galvão, Dulce Maria Pereira Garcia; Silva, Ernestina Maria Batoca; Silva, Daniel Marques

doi:10.1590/1984-0462/2022/40/2020234

Brasil

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Review Article • Rev. paul. pediatr. 40 • 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-0462/2022/40/2020234 linkcopy

Use of new technologies and promotion of breastfeeding: integrative literature review

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

Objective: To identify the most used social networks and the most consumed contents by women seeking support and further understanding of breastfeeding/breast milk.

Data source: An integrative literature review was performed using the Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL Complete, MedicLatina, Academic Search Complete and ERIC databases. The search was conducted in April, 2020. The inclusion criteria were: publications in Portuguese, English or Spanish with several keywords, such as “Breastfeeding”, “Social Networking”, “Social Media”, “Breastfeeding Promotion”, in the title and in the abstract, with the combination of the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”, in original articles of primary source, which were available in full text and were published between 2015 and 2020.

Data synthesis: Out of the 93 articles that were first examined, 10 were used in the descriptive summary. Studies from the United States, Sweden, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, and Switzerland were included in the review. Women were found to use several social networks, which is facilitated by an easy access to the Internet and to its content through several electronic resources, often using more than one device simultaneously. Most issues were universally recognized as some of the most common reasons for interrupting breastfeeding.

Conclusions: The analyzed studies show that women seek to clarify their doubts outside the traditional health services’ environment, using Facebook, apps, websites, online videos, podcasts and e-mail. We stress the importance of these support groups for promoting breastfeeding and the need for health professionals to introduce themselves in social networks to reach mothers.

Keywords: Breastfeeding; Social networking; Social media; Health promotion; Health personnel

Authors	Country/year of publication	Type of study	Level of evidence	Studied population/sample
Demirci et al.¹⁴	United States (2016)	Quantitative/randomized	II	146 puerperal mothers of NB who were born with 34 to 37 gestational weeks, with intention to breastfeed
Tomfohrde e Reinke¹⁵	United States (2016)	Quantitative/descriptive	VI	309 participants
Power et al.¹⁶	United States (2017)	Quantitative/descriptive/cross-sectional	VI	975 or 48.9% of the authorized representatives of Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in the delta of River Yukon Kuskokwim (YKD), in Southwest Alaska, were randomly selected.
Wennberg et al.¹⁷	Sweden (2017)	Qualitative/descriptive/cross-sectional	VI	370 published posts in 2 online forums
Alianmoghaddam et al.¹⁸	New Zealand (2018)	Qualitative/descriptive	VI	30 puerperal women
Araújo et al.¹⁹	Brazil (2018)	Qualitative/descriptive: case report	VI	30 pregnant women who accompanied their pregnancy at a basic health unit in different gestational periods
Bridges et al.²⁰	Australia (2018)	Qualitative/etnographic	VI	778 posts on Facebook
Dewanti et al.²¹	Indonesia (2019)	Qualitative/descriptive	VI	10 mothers who were breastfeeding
Rezaallah et al.²²	Switzerland (2019)	Qualitative/descriptive	VI	Posts in 21 pregnancy forums that were publically available
Wagg, Callanan & Hasset.²³	United States (2019)	Qualitative/descriptive	VI	501 posts collected between November 1st and 7, 2016, in an online breastfeeding support group

Available information
Social networks/information technologies
	Apps and websites about pregnancy/parenthood and breastfeeding support.¹⁴^,¹⁸^,¹⁹^,²¹
	E-mail.¹⁴^–¹⁶
	Internet.¹⁴^,¹⁶^,¹⁸^,
	Online vídeos.¹⁴^,¹⁶
	Online courses/classes, electronic medical journals, peer forums and e-books.¹⁴
	Podcasts.¹⁴^,¹⁷^,²⁰^,²²^,²³
	Text messages.¹⁴^,¹⁶
	Facebook.¹⁴^–¹⁶^,¹⁸^,²⁰
	Google.¹⁸
	Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, BabyCenter and Glide.¹⁵
	Smartphones, tablets and computers.¹⁶^,¹⁸
	Skype or telephone.¹⁸
	WhatsApp.¹⁹
	Online forums.²²
Consumed themes/contents
	Support and encouragement to breastfeeding, besides its promotion.¹⁴^,¹⁸^,²⁰
	Empowerment and confidence in parental skills: advantages and techniques of breastfeeding versus problems with breastfeeding.¹⁴^,¹⁷^,²⁰
	Concerns about the early introduction of formula.¹⁷^,²³
	Imformation about breastfeeding and child nutrition.¹⁴^,¹⁸^,¹⁹
	Information about nutrition,²⁰^,²³ sexual activity, physical activities, medications,²³ oral health, vaccines, tests, body and emotional changes during pregnancy.¹⁹
	Information about types of delivery, importance of family support, newborn vaccination, mother and child care network.¹⁹
	Information about breastfeeding and work, including the collection and storage of breast milk.²⁰^,²³
	Information about maternal health.²¹^,²³
	Information about child care and health.²¹^,²³
	Information about pregnancy, breastfeeding and use of medication for multiple sclerosis.²²
Advantages of social networks
	To provide support and education outside the traditional doctor’s office¹⁴^,¹⁹ or to people who live in distant communities.¹⁶
	Health professionals promoting the practice or publicizing scientific and clinically solid information about breastfeeding and other aspects of maternity.¹⁵
	To develop better support for mothers, helping them feel more confident in their parental skills, from health professionals.¹⁷
	To facilitate the dissemination of information about breastfeeding and child nutrition.¹⁸
	To share experiences about pregnancy,¹⁹ breastfeeding and child care.²¹^,²³
	To be an easy way of accessing information, of emotional help and encouragement.²¹
	To socialize with other mothers.²¹
	To clarify doubts with health professionals involved in pregnancy or child care.²²
Problems or difficulties to use the social media
	The use of technologies while breastfeeding can lead mothers to miss the opportunity to make eye contact and interact with their children.¹⁵
	The non-use of technology is owed to not having access to the internet/computer and the high cost of internet.¹⁶
	Overwhelming amount of information and taking up too much time.²¹

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[TFN1] NB: newborn.