모자동실에 따른 모유수유 실천율 조사연구 = Korean mothers' attitudes toward rooming-In and the relationship between rooming and breastfeeding

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Unlike many western countries, Korea has always maintained a traditional method of caring for mothers who had delivered babies. The mothers were encouraged to stay in bed-rest for at least three weeks, follow a strict diet, and restrict themselves from physical activities. Because most Korean hospitals had separate nurseries and postpartum units, the mothers were kept away from their babies except for visiting hours. As a result, the breast-feeding rate in Korea is no higher than 20 percent, which is lower than most western countries that allow mothers and babies to stay together in the same room.
In 1996, one of the "Baby Friendly Hospitals", Samsung Medical Center(SMC) in Seoul, Korea, introduced Rooming-In to the postpartum unit to promote the breast-feeding rate. The objectives of this study were to investigate mothers' attitudes toward Rooming-In and the relationship between Rooming-In and breast-feeding. This study included 203 mothers who gave birth to healthy infants between April 3 and May 5 1998 at SMC. The mothers were given a self-administered questionnaire following their delivery concerning the patient's status, age, parity, socioeconomic status, number of babies given birth to, and their opinions toward Rooming-In. They were also asked to complete a check-list containing questions about their time of feeding, their frequency of breast-feeding, the duration of feeding, and the duration of breast-feeding throughout their hospital stay. The main factor that affected the Rooming-In rate was the type of delivery : Mothers who had vaginal delivery were more likely to choose Rooming-In than mothers who had Cesarean-Section ; On logistic regression analysis, mothers who had Roming-In were more likely to breast-feed their infants than mothers who did not choose Rooming-In ; Only 59(29 percent) mothers chose Rooming-In, 133(65.5 percent) chose partial Rooming-In, and 10(4.9 percent) refused Rooming-In ; The reasons they wanted to have Rooming-In were to increase their self-confidence in caring for their babies, have the chance to learn more about their babies, and gain more knowledge and skill towards caring for their babies. The reasons they did not want to have Rooming-In were the possibility of their babies becoming infected, their lack of self-confidence in caring for their babies, and the crowded and noisy hospital setting. Conclusion ; (1) In order to successfully continue Rooming-In at SMC, the hospital staff needs to provide more support and educational programs to the mothers and their families. (2) Rooming-In, by itself, is not enough to promote the rate of breast-feeding. Therefore, more studies should be undertaken to find other ways toward promoting breast-feeding.