Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Rebecca Hanauer and I am a sophomore at Florida State University. My hometown is Boynton Beach Florida and my research interests are in the field of medicine.

Analyzing the factors that affect body image and breastfeeding in postpartum mothers

Abstract

Mothers who breastfeed their babies for longer see health benefits in their children and themselves. This study aims to compare body image, depression, and BMI, to one another and see if any of them effect breastfeeding in postpartum mothers.
We will collect information from these mothers by having them take a quantitative survey and by giving them a qualitative interview. We will then analyze the data pertaining to body image, BMI, depression, and breastfeeding using statistical analysis
Results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between postpartum mother’s body image questionnaire results and depression, an insignificant positive correlation between the body image questionnaire and BMI, and that mothers who are still currently breastfeeding when they took the survey are an average of 4.76 kilograms lighter than mothers who aren’t.
These results show that mothers who have a higher BMI are more likely to stop breastfeeding earlier than mothers with a lower BMI.

Keywords: Body Image Breastfeeding Postpartum