Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Role of women in military has undergone transformation and progressively recognized by the organization. However, it provides a unique environment to the women as it has always been considered as male dominated world. Hence, servicewomen faced challenges to balance their domestic role and career needs in the military. This study aims to look the effect of military life to the servicewomen on breastfeeding and the associated factors that influence the practice in Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF). METHODS: A cross-sectional study with face to face interview was conducted in September 2015. RESULTS: Among 435 servicewomen, 46% are from Army, 34.7% are Navy personnel and 19.3% are from Air Force. The mean (SD) age of the mothers was 33.2 (4.2) and mean (SD) number of children was 2.6 (0.9). Majority of them (92.2%) breastfed their children and 67.4% were able to breastfeed exclusively for six months. Mean (SD) duration of breastfeeding was 1.3 (0.74) years. The study found that majority described they were not comfortable of the surrounding working environment (98.3%), no appropriate place to express and store breastmilk (98.4%) as well as work demand that separates them from their children (98.0%) as the challenges faced to breastfeed. DISCUSSION: Efforts to create supportive environment and better facilities should be implemented in the intervention program to promote breastfeeding practice in MAF.
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@proceedings{APCPH-2019-133,
title = {Breastfeeding in Combat Boots: The Challenges},
author = {Faira Rosmarina Mohd Rustam},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-22},
urldate = {2019-07-22},
journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
issue = {6},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Role of women in military has undergone transformation and progressively recognized by the organization. However, it provides a unique environment to the women as it has always been considered as male dominated world. Hence, servicewomen faced challenges to balance their domestic role and career needs in the military. This study aims to look the effect of military life to the servicewomen on breastfeeding and the associated factors that influence the practice in Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF). METHODS: A cross-sectional study with face to face interview was conducted in September 2015. RESULTS: Among 435 servicewomen, 46% are from Army, 34.7% are Navy personnel and 19.3% are from Air Force. The mean (SD) age of the mothers was 33.2 (4.2) and mean (SD) number of children was 2.6 (0.9). Majority of them (92.2%) breastfed their children and 67.4% were able to breastfeed exclusively for six months. Mean (SD) duration of breastfeeding was 1.3 (0.74) years. The study found that majority described they were not comfortable of the surrounding working environment (98.3%), no appropriate place to express and store breastmilk (98.4%) as well as work demand that separates them from their children (98.0%) as the challenges faced to breastfeed. DISCUSSION: Efforts to create supportive environment and better facilities should be implemented in the intervention program to promote breastfeeding practice in MAF.},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Health Services Division, Malaysian Armed Forces},
keywords = {apcph2019, breastfeeding, challenges, military women},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}