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Combining Employment and Breastfeeding: Utilizing a Work-Family Conflict Framework to Understand Obstacles and Solutions

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Abstract

Although authorities advocate breastfeeding as the ideal form of infant nutrition, breastfeeding rates remain low among employed mothers in the United States. Utilizing a work-family conflict framework, specific time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based conflicts that can occur for women combining breastfeeding and employment are explored. Research indicates that these conflicts often lead to decreased breastfeeding durations, which result in costs for employers, mothers, and infants. The review links workplace interventions (e.g. prenatal education, lactation programs, support systems, job flexibility, and child care) to the types of conflict (e.g. time, behavior, and strain-based) that each intervention can reduce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, 250 Mills Godwin Building, 23529, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

    Rebekah A. Cardenas & Debra A. Major

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  1. Rebekah A. Cardenas
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  2. Debra A. Major
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Correspondence to Debra A. Major.

Additional information

A previous version of this paper was presented in March of 2003 at the American Psychological Association’s Work, Stress, and Health Conference in Toronto, Canada.

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Cardenas, R.A., Major, D.A. Combining Employment and Breastfeeding: Utilizing a Work-Family Conflict Framework to Understand Obstacles and Solutions. J Bus Psychol 20, 31–51 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-005-6982-0

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