Each month, we select up to 10 publications from those that have recently been entered into the Literature Database.

A year ago, there were 7,400 citations in the Literature Database. As of May 2007, we now have over 8,580 citations.

Click here for a direct link to the Sloan Literature Update articles in the Literature Database.

Cardenas, R.A. & Major, D.A. (2005). Combining employment and breastfeeding: Utilizing a work-family conflict framework to understand obstacles and solutions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 20(1), 31-51.
The authors use Greenhaus and Beutell’s work-family conflict framework, which proposes time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based conflicts as the three main forms of work-family conflict, to understand the obstacles faced by women who wish to combine working and breastfeeding. The three conflicts are applied to breastfeeding, after which the authors suggest several methods to reduce the conflict between breastfeeding and paid employment. The benefits of breastfeeding to mothers and children and the costs to employers whose employees do not breastfeed are discussed.

Global Perspectives - Chen, Y.C., Wu, Y.C., and Chie, W.C. (2006). Effects of work-related factors on the breastfeeding behaviour of working mothers in a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer: a cross-sectional survey.  BMC Public Health, 6, 160-168.

This article examines the effects of breastfeeding-friendly policies and work-related factors on the breastfeeding behaviour of working mothers in a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer.  The WHO recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life serves as the baseline for assessing optimal breastfeeding behaviour.  A questionnaire study is conducted at a large semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan, which employs 10,000 workers and half are women and is the first semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan to provide lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks for working mothers.  Quantitative data on female employees’ breastfeeding behaviour, child rearing, and work status are drawn from 998 questionnaires.  The findings reveal that the average breastfeeding rate of the organization’s female workers at one month postpartum is higher than the national average (66.9% cf. 22.3%).  However, the rate of breastfeeding after returning to work is much lower than the national average at three months postpartum (10.6% cf. 16.7%).  The findings also show that breastfeeding policies and facilities at work have a smaller effect on female fabrication workers who work inflexible 12-hour shifts than their office worker counterparts.  The paper suggests that without a more supportive working environment, breastfeeding-friendly policies and facilities are insufficient, especially for blue-collar mothers, including the fabrication workers in the study, who tend to lack support from their supervisors and colleagues.  The authors argue that socio-economic, cultural, and psychological conditions of working mothers’ must also be considered when examining breastfeeding behaviour.  Annotated by Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Doctoral Researcher, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.

Global Perspectives - DeRose, L.F. (2007). Women’s work and breastfeeding simultaneously rise in Ghana. Economic Development & Cultural Change, 55(3), 583-612.
Data from Ghana’s Demographic and Health Surveys revealed an increase in both breastfeeding and labor force among women with small children. The author examined work and child care arrangements as well as the availability of substitute labor within the home for tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and child care. Findings indicate that half of the growth in women’s work in Ghana has been in jobs in which a mother may take care of her child during the day. Mothers who brought their children to work with them breastfed at higher rates than those who did not work outside of the home. Women’s increased labor participation did not lower overall breastfeeding rates because a large portion of mothers’ work did not separate them from their children.

Haider, S.J., Jacknowitz, A. & Schoeni, R.F. (2003). Welfare work requirements and child well-being: Evidence from the effects on breast-feeding. Demography, 40(3), 479-497.
This study uses data on the prevalence of breast-feeding from the Ross Laboratories Mothers Survey (RLMS) as well as information from the Urban Institute’s Welfare Rules Database on welfare policy to determine the effects of welfare reform on the rate of breast-feeding. The reforms in question require women with infants to work outside of the home. The authors compiled 28 states with strict policy laws that required the mothers to work a high or moderate amount of hours along with sanction policies, which penalize families who do not meet work requirements and five states with no work requirements, two of which had sanction policies, three of which did not. They then obtained breastfeeding rates for new mothers in the hospital post-birth as well as rates for six months after the babies’ births. Findings reveal that national breastfeeding rates in the year 2000 would have been 5.5% higher if it were not for welfare reform. Among women participating in the WIC program, the most stringent work laws reduced breast-feeding by 22 percent.

Global Perspectives - Kosmala-Anderson, J. & Wallace, L.M. (2006). Breastfeeding works: The role of employers in supporting women who wish to breastfeed and work in four organizations in England. Journal of Public Health, 28(3), 183-191.
This article surveyed 46 employees from four different British public sector organizations who were either planning to go on maternity leave within six months, on maternity leave, or within six months of returning from maternity leave. Eighty percent of the women surveyed wanted to continue breastfeeding after returning to work. Ninety percent of respondents were not aware of any employer policies on breastfeeding and were not offered any information on breastfeeding at work, despite two of the organizations having a range of maternity and breastfeeding policies and facilities in place. Twenty-one women reported the worst experience of their maternity leaves as the “lack of interest, information, and support from the employer.” Recommendations on how employers can offer breastfeeding support to their nursing employees are made.

McKinley, N.M. & Shibley, J.S. (2004). Personal attitudes or structural factors?: A contextual analysis of breastfeeding duration. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28(4), 388-399..
The authors used the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Project to survey a sample of 548 women to test both the personal attitudes model of breastfeeding (i.e., the choice to breastfeed is primarily based on mothers’ personal attitudes) as well as a structural factors model (i.e., the choice to breastfeed is based on structural contexts of mothers’ lives as well as personal attitudes). The women surveyed were recruited in their second trimesters of pregnancy and were surveyed at that time as well as one month, four months, and twelve months after giving birth. Eighty two percent breastfed at some time, 32% still breastfed at six months, and 12% still breastfed at one year, with a mean duration of 20.93 weeks of breastfeeding. Personal attitudes accounted for half as much variance in the duration of breastfeeding for women who worked outside of the home compared to women who did not. For women working outside of the home, structural factors as well as personal attitudes predicted duration.

Ammons, S.K. & Edgell, P. (2007). Religious influences on work-family trade-offs. Journal of Family Issues, 28(6), 794-826.
Using the 1996 General Social Survey, the authors investigate how religion affects employment and family trade-offs, in which workers devote attention and time to work and family when they can’t devote their ideal amounts of attention and time to both. These trade-off may be defined as “making sacrifices, hard choices, or accommodations.” The report discusses the 994 respondents to the Gender Module of the 1996 GSS who were working full- or part-time or were out of work due to temporary illness, vacation, or strike. Findings reveal that women’s work trade-offs are work demands and autonomy, while family trade-offs are many factors, including age, their contribution to their household’s income, work and family demands, and religion. Men’s work-family trade-offs are affected by family demands and religion, while their family demands are influenced by work responsibilities and religion.