A mixed-methods exploration of medication as a barrier to breastfeeding with intervention development

Breastfeeding has many health benefits for mother and baby, such as reducing infections in the baby and lowering the risk of breast and ovarian in the mother. Despite this, breastfeeding rates in the UK are one of the lowest in the world. The requirement for some mothers to take medication is thought to be one barrier to successful breastfeeding. Some medicines can affect babies through breastmilk. Many drugs are not tested in breastfeeding women during their development stages due to ethical concerns, leading to cautious advice on medication use while breastfeeding. However, as medications become widely used, researchers discover more about its safety during breastfeeding.

Only a few medicines are truly unsafe during breastfeeding. Nonetheless, both mothers and doctors worry about using medicines while breastfeeding. Some women may decide to discontinue breastfeeding to take a medicine, despite it being safe. We don’t know how many women in the UK make this decision, or why. Understanding the cause of this can help us find ways to help support mothers to continue breastfeeding while using a medicine.

By surveying new mothers, this research aims to:

Find out how many mothers stop breastfeeding, or never start it, because of medication
Find out how often women avoid breastfeeding due to a medication, despite that medicine being safe for use during breastfeeding
Explore why mothers make the decision to stop breastfeeding because of a medicine. This may be because a doctor told them to stop, or because they feel worried about the effects on their child
Find out if there are certain groups of mothers who are more likely to stop breastfeeding because of medicine, even if the medicine is safe.
To answer these questions, 300 women will be invited to tell us about their experience of using medication while breastfeeding. We will do this by asking them to complete a questionnaire before they have their baby, and then at several points after the birth of their baby. A group of 20 women will also be interviewed face-to-face so we can learn more about what they think.

We will then use what we learn to develop ways to help more mothers feel comfortable about breastfeeding when using medication, provided it is safe. This may be a teaching tool for mothers or for the healthcare professionals that care for them. This could be targeted at certain groups of mothers who are more likely to stop breastfeeding because of medicine.

A group of four breastfeeding women have helped design this study, to make sure it answers relevant and important questions for them. They have also provided advice on how the questionnaire and interviews should be carried out, so they are not too inconvenient for new mums. This group of women will continue to advise on the how this research is completed throughout the project.

The findings will be shared at conferences (through posters and presentations), on social media, in medical publications targeted at professionals involved in breastfeeding care, and via patient groups.