Background
Breastfeeding protects mothers against breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases in later life [
1,
2], offers infants better mental and intellectual development [
3], strengthens mother-infant bonding, and saves related health care costs [
4]. The World Health Organization, among other institutions, recommends that all infants receive exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months postpartum and sets the goals for achieving a six-month exclusive breastfeeding rate of at least 50% in 2025 [
5]. However, despite substantial evidence and many policies indicating that breastfeeding is a healthy behaviour for infants, mothers, and society, recent estimates show that the Chinese exclusive breastfeeding rate at 6 months is 29.5%, and there is a 30.71% country six-month exclusive breastfeeding rate in the world at less than 20%, which is a significant gap from the WHO targe [
6,
7]. Therefore, effectively increasing the exclusive breastfeeding rate under 6 months is a common problem that many countries and international organizations need to solve together. Many articles have discussed the exclusive breastfeeding rate, and a rule was summarized that the initial breastfeeding incidence is higher and drops sharply after being discharged from the hospital over time [
8,
9]. Recently, a survey was conducted in which 67.9% of mothers stopped exclusive breastfeeding within the first 6 weeks postpartum among mothers who gave up under the first 6 months, which emphasized the significance of 6 weeks postpartum and provided a unique perspective to upgrade the exclusive breastfeeding rate [
10].
The first 6 weeks postpartum, also known as puerperium, is a variable and particular period for maternal psychic recovery and social and emotional modifications [
11]. The birth of a newborn breaks the original balance and pushes forward women to experience role changes, complete role adaptation, and finally achieve maternal role attainment [
12]. In the process, the woman needs to play the new role of mother and take responsibility for meeting expectations given by society, such as breastfeeding [
13]. Six weeks postpartum is the transition period for breastfeeding, and the transition theory proposed by Professor Meleis defines the transition as a process from one stable state to another stable state when needs change, with an unstable phase in the midst [
14]. To achieve breastfeeding, mothers within 6 weeks postpartum need to form new stable behaviour patterns to replace actual behaviour by learning breastfeeding knowledge and skills, coping with breastfeeding challenges, and adjusting negative emotions [
15,
16]. The new behaviour pattern may appear as an inherent behavioural feature that affects maternal cognition, decision-making or action on breastfeeding during the 6 months postpartum or even the subsequent pregnancy [
17]. However, due to mothers’ own physical or/and psychological vulnerabilities and insufficient support from health professionals within 6 weeks postpartum, mothers are prone to behavioural disorders and eventually develop an ineffective breastfeeding behaviour pattern, resulting in poor breastfeeding conditions [
18,
19]. Hence, our research team deems that exploration of breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum is one of the breakthroughs to promote breastfeeding practice.
The term breastfeeding behaviour is widely used, but it is a summary concept for breastfeeding mode and specific breastfeeding technologies and not yet a distinct concept in the literature, making it difficult to operationalize [
20‐
23]. Moreover, to our knowledge, mothers’ breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum has not yet received attention from other researchers. In our previous research, we were inspired by the COM-B system, transitions theory, maternal role attainment theory, and related literature to complete the conceptual analysis [
24‐
29]. The mothers’ breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum was defined as mothers performing breastfeeding psychological reactions or movements depending on the internal regulation of their own capability, motivation and opportunity under external stimulation from the social environment, social resources, and infant behaviour, and its attributes include self-regulation behaviour, resource utilization behaviour, and at-the-breast feeding behaviour. A scientific and practical instrument is necessary for subsequent relevant research, which is required to accurately identify behavioural shortcomings and nursing problems to provide practical and targeted support for mothers within 6 weeks postpartum. Compared with other indicators, the observation and evaluation of maternal breastfeeding behaviour is more intuitive and direct, which is more valuable for nurses and midwives to comprehensively identify potential shortcomings and provide targeted interventions. However, these existing scales focus on measuring why mothers give up breastfeeding early, such as breastfeeding knowledge, skills, attitudes, satisfaction, self-efficacy, and competency [
6,
30‐
34]. No prior study was found to develop a scale for evaluating breastfeeding behaviour, especially for mothers within 6 weeks postpartum, hence warranting careful study. To fill this gap, this study aimed to develop the mothers’ breastfeeding behaviour scale within 6 weeks postpartum (MBBC-6 W) and validate its reliability and validity to provide an assessment tool for related evaluation and intervention in future research.
Discussion
The current study aimed to develop a theoretically driven MBBC-6 W and validate its reliability and validity in the Chinese population, which was achieved by following the systematic approach for scale development and comprehensive psychometric validation. In the stage of scale development, the initial 45-item scale was revised and reduced successively to the formal 36-item MBBC-6 W through the presurvey and item analysis. The final scale includes seven dimensions: self-decision behaviour (5 items), self-coping behaviour (5 items), self-control behaviour (5 items), resource coordination behaviour (5 items), resource acquisition behaviour (4 items), breastfeeding operation skills (6 items), and breastfeeding self-perception (6 items). All items of the scale are positive with Likert’s five-point scale, and the scores range from 36 points to 180 points. Meanwhile, the psychometric validation verified that the MBBC-6 W had convincing internal reliability, external reliability, face validity, content validity, structure validity, convergence validity, distinguish validity, and calibration validity, meaning that it is a reliable and valid instrument to assess mothers’ breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum.
The item was an essential part of the scale, and the item analysis was the critical step in scale development. In this study, five methods were used to analyse the capability of items from the perspectives of sensitivity, differentiation, internal consistency, representativeness, importance, and independence. The CV value reflected the sensitivity of items, and the finding represented Item 14: “
For breastfeedi
ng, I pay attention to one’s own lifestyle (such as not drinking the strong tea, strong coffee, and alcoholic beverages, not smoking, not taking drugs, etc.)” had poor sensitivity (CV < 0.15). The possible reason is related to the traditional Chinese puerperium culture, also known as “Zuo Yue Zi”, which deems that lifestyle during puerperium has a long-term impact on maternal health. Thus, most Chinese mothers and their social support system try their best to keep a healthy lifestyle in the puerperium [
47]. The correlation coefficient of the scale scores and Item 3 “
I decided to breastfeed is not to meet the expectations of my husband, family or others” was lower than the standard, meaning Item 3 could not represent the scale. The plausible explanation could be that, with the rise of female consciousness, modern independent women decide to breastfeed their infant because of the benefits for maternal and infant health, rather than to cater to other people [
7]. The commonality of Item 27,
“I can recognize the sign of infant hunger accurately and timely”, was less than the standard, presenting that the importance for scale was poor, which could be caused by maternal different understanding for “infant hunger sign”. Item 28 “
When breastfeeding, I will put the baby’s face close to the breast, and align the tip of baby’s nose at my nipple instead of mouth” and Item 32 “
For latch well, I support the breast with a C-shape (Place the thumb on top of the breast, and the other four fingers on the chest wall under the breast)” were deleted due to the lower commonality. The possible reason is the lower completion rate during breastfeeding, which is consistent with the maternal feedback during the daily clinical breastfeeding instruction. Both Item 28 and Item 32 were designed because the abovementioned feeding techniques could help infants latch nipples well. The remaining Item 33, “
During breastfeeding, my infant can always contain the whole nipple, and most of the areola in the mouth, “ could evaluate the latch results more intuitively. Items 41 “
I think I have sufficient breastmilk to meet infant demand” and Item 43 “
Breastfeeding makes me feel like a good mother” were deleted because of the cross-loading, indicating that independence was not recognized. The deletion of Item 43 may be related to it being a comprehensive variable without particularity. The perception of breast milk production is a manifestation of confidence, and the dimension of self-decision behaviour also contains the item evaluating maternal confidence in breastfeeding, which may be the reason why Item 41 belongs to both dimensions [
48]. Fortunately, the measuring purpose of Item 40, “
I think breastfeeding made baby gain a healthy weight”, is similar to Item 41, and it could more objectively evaluate whether breast milk is sufficient.
Reliability, reflecting the internal consistency and stability of the scale, includes internal and external reliability. Cronbach’s α coefficient and the split-half coefficient were used to verify the internal reliability. The results showed that Cronbach’s α coefficient and split-half coefficient of scale were above reference, indicating that the scale has an excellent internal consistency according to the standard classification recommendation [
49,
50]. The result showed that the retest coefficient of the scale exceeded the suggested value, meaning that the scale has the capability to obtain a stable result under similar external conditions and has acceptable external reliability [
51]. The validity, referring to the ability of the scale to reflect the actual characteristics of the measuring target, consists of face validity, content validity, structure validity, convergence validity, distinguish validity, and calibration validity. In the pilot study, mothers with different education levels, delivery modes, parities, and infant whereabouts were invited to participate in the investigation, ensuring that comprehensive feedback was received from mothers with different characteristics, which provided a good condition to test scale applicability. Among them, most of the mothers (73.3%) had no doubts about items, and eight mothers pointed out some confusion in expression, which was subsequently resolved by the research group referring to their own maternal suggestions; thus, the final revised scale was understandable with good face validity. Seventeen experts reviewed the content validity, and the findings showed that both item-level and scale-level CVI were acceptable, demonstrating that the MBBC-6 W was compatible with the final measuring target. All of the methods often used to extract factors showed that the MBBC-6 W yielded seven common factors, which matched the theoretical model. Moreover, the MBBC-6 W could explain 68.852% of the total variance, confirming that the scale could capture the main characteristics of the mothers’ breastfeeding behaviour within 6 weeks postpartum. On the other hand, the results of CFA showed that, except for TLI being equal to 0.893, all of the remaining fitting indices of the seven-factor model met the statistical requirements. However, the researcher pointed out that the CFI is a valid reference when the TLI is slightly smaller than the standard value [
52]. Therefore, although the value of TLI was less than 0.9, the CFI was equal to 0.903, indicating that the seven-factor MBBC-6 W had acceptable structural validity. The factor loadings of items are more significant than the lower limit, indicating that the item-belonging dimension has good convergence validity. Moreover, the value of CR and AVE exceeded the reference, indicating good convergence validity between different dimensions. Distinguishing validity, reflecting the degree of distinction between different dimensions, was analysed by the AVE method and chi-square difference test in this study. Although the distinctive degrees of F1, F2, and F3 were questioned in the results of the AVE method, the chi-square difference test confirmed that the original three-factor model was significantly better than the one-factor model and the two-factor model, indicating that there was a distinction among F1, F2, and F3. The ROC analysis showed that both AUCs were more significant than 0.7 when the scale was used to predict exclusive breastfeeding and any breastfeeding at 42 days, and they were not affected by covariances, suggesting that the scale was a valid tool to predict breastfeeding mode at 42 days. The MBBC-6 W also exhibited specific correlations with the MBFES and BSES-SF, further demonstrating that the MBFES is a valid scale, as breastfeeding behaviour is related to breastfeeding satisfaction and self-efficacy [
53].
A new scale named MBBC-6 W was developed and validated in this study, which was designed to measure breastfeeding behaviour among mothers within 6 weeks postpartum. Since there is no specific instrument to evaluate breastfeeding behaviour, the current study has important theoretical and practical implications. In contrast to the existing scales, the scale is conceptually appealing because it directly concentrates on measuring behaviour itself and innovatively focuses on the particular group of mothers within 6 weeks postpartum, which could lay a foundation for evaluation and intervention in future research and clinical practice. However, due to the restrictions of time or conditions, some limitations need to be considered. First, the participants were recruited only in one hospital, and as breastfeeding behaviours are culturally sensitive, the determinants of those behaviours can vary from region to region. Thus, the universality of the scale was limited, and a multicentre study would be built to obtain a scale that would be culturally appropriate and comprehensible for mothers all over the country or even used internationally. Second, the convenience sampling method may affect the sampling representativeness, which could be improved by using random sampling in future research. Third, even though a more extensive sample investigation was implemented, the sample size for EFA and CFA was insufficient because the sample was bisected for the credibility of factor analysis. Subsequent research should continue to expand the sample size to obtain a more stable and reliable model. Fourth, the psychometric verification of MBBC-6 W was based on the classical testing theory (CTT), which has inherent limitations, such as it is challenging to satisfy the assumption of error and accurate score. Further research should use item response theory or multidimensional item response theory to overcome this limitation and provide more information for psychometric testing of the MBBC-6 W. Finally, MBBC-6 W has not yet been applied in clinical practice. The scale should be further used to investigate the current status and potential risk factors to help policy-makers and health workers find problems and formulate corresponding strategies that are conducive to breastfeeding and ultimately achieve the goal of optimal breastfeeding practice.
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