Do the psychosocial risk factors of the mothers have effect on the breast milk electrolytes?

INTRODUCTION

In this study, concentrations of sodium (Na) and sodium/potassium ratio (Na/K), as an indicator of successful lactation, and their relationships with the mothers and their babies’ sociodemographic features, psychosocial risk factors of mothers and their adult type attachment styles were aimed to be investigated.

METHODS

The case group consisted of the mothers’ of 150 consecutive, exclusively breasfed, healthy babies that were administered to Dokuz Eylul University School Of Medicine and Tepecik State Hospital Healthy Children Outpatient Unit. Findings including babies’ and their mothers’ features were collected from a semi-structured interview with the mother. Relationship Scale Questionnaire (RSQ) were applied to the mothers to identify the adult type attachement styles of the mothers. Ten ml of breast milk obtained from the mothers by milking manually.

RESULTS

Fourty-nine (%32.7)Mothers had higher than expected breast milk Na concentrations and high Na/K ratio. Mothers with higher concentrations of Na in their milk were mothers that thought they were not appropriate to have a child at significance limits (p=0.059). There were no statistically significant differences between two groups of mothers, one with high mean breast milk Na and Na/K ratio, other with expected levels, regarding their adult attachment styles.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

According to the results of this study it can be speculated that the some psychosocial risk factors of the mothers have effect on the breast milk electrolytes. But these results should be shown in other studies with a large sample size.