Abstract
Objectives We examine the ways in which the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire evacuation affected infant feeding. Our primary objective is to understand the decisions and perceptions of primary caregivers of children age 0–36 months who evacuated from Fort McMurray, Canada. Methods We used a mixed methods approach to assess the overall impact that the evacuation had on infant feeding. Specific outcome variables for the quantitative research are: decision-making, access to support and resources, and changes in routine. Participants were recruited using a purposive sampling technique through infant feeding in emergency support groups on social media in which members were primarily evacuees from the Fort McMurray wildfire. Loglinear results include a model of feeding methods before and after the wildfire evacuation. Results Content analyses results from qualitative data support findings from the loglinear model. Specifically, the findings suggest that the evacuation was associated with a reduction in breastfeeding and an increase in use of infant formula The open-ended data revealed that caregivers experienced stress during and after the evacuation due to moving from place to place, food insecurity associated with artificial feeding, warding off unhealthy food for older children, and managing family reunification. In addition, respondents reported that breastfeeding was a source of comfort for infants and contributed to a sense of empowerment. Conclusions for Practice This study sets forth important groundwork for understanding decision-making, stress, logistics, and social factors that influence infant feeding in a large-scale evacuation event. Emergency management, health workers, and nutrition experts can provide support to families in disasters to mitigate some of the adverse impacts the evacuation may have on infant feeding.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Re-entry Timeline Report, 2016.
IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
This is the mean age for the youngest infant per family. As noted in text, the mean number of children was 1.48.
References
Ager, A. A., Kline, J. D., & Fischer, A. P. (2015). Coupling the biophysical and social dimensions of wildfire risk to improve wildfire mitigation planning. Risk Analysis, 35(8), 1393–1406. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12373.
Alberta Health. (2015). Primary health care community profile: Fort McMurray (report). Retrieved from https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/1cc7e9cd-6cd2-4ae5-9314-9faad886a91b/resource/477e153e-ecba-4fe5-8d57-6a8c3ac6365c/download/PHC-Profile-FortMcMurray.pdf.
Barbour, R. S. (2001). Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research: A case of the tail wagging the dog? British Medical Journal, 322(7294), 1115.
Bengtsson, M. (2016). Research article: How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001.
Berry, K. J., & Mielke, P. W. Jr. (1988). A generalization of Cohen’s kappa agreement measure to interval measurement and multiple raters. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48(4), 921–933.
Binns, C. W., Lee, M. K., Tang, L., Yu, C., Hokama, T., & Lee, A. (2012). Ethical issues in infant feeding after disasters. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 24(4), 672–680. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539512453253.
Black, R. E., Allen, L. H., Bhutta, Z. A., Caulfield, L. E., De Onis, M., Ezzati, M. & Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group. (2008). Maternal and child undernutrition: Global and regional exposures and health consequences. The Lancet, 371(9608), 243–260.
Brady, J. P. (2012). Marketing breast milk substitutes: Problems and perils throughout the world. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 97(6), 529–532.
Brunson, J. (2017). Maternal, newborn, and child health after the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: An investigation of the long-term gendered impacts of disasters. Maternal & Child Health Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-017-2350-8.
Callaghan, W. M., Rasmussen, S. A., Jamieson, D. J., Ventura, S. J., Farr, S. L., Sutton, P. D., & Brantley, D. (2007). Health concerns of women and infants in times of natural disasters: Lessons learned from hurricane Katrina. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 11(4), 307–311.
Carothers, C., & Gribble, K. (2014). Infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Journal of Human Lactation, 30(3), 272–275.
Dashti, S., Palen, L., Heris, M. P., Anderson, K. M., Anderson, T. J., & Anderson, S. (2014). Supporting disaster reconnaissance with social media data: A design-oriented case study of the 2013 Colorado floods. In ISCRAM.
Datar, A., Liu, J., Linnemayr, S., & Stecher, C. (2013). The impact of natural disasters on child health and investments in rural India. Social Science & Medicine, 76, 83–91.
DeYoung, S. E., Chase, J., Branco, M., & Park, B. (2017). Advocacy, decision making, and support strategies in addressing infant feeding for the Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees. 12th Breastfeeding and Feminism International Conference: Breastfeeding as Social Justice: From Crucial Conversation to Inspired Action. Journal of Human Lactation, 33(4), 790–814. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334417726299.
Dörnemann, J., & Kelly, A. H. (2013). ‘It is me who eats, to nourish him’: A mixed-method study of breastfeeding in post-earthquake Haiti. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 9(1), 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8709.2012.00428.x.
Goudet, S. (2011). Infant and young children’s nutritional health and feeding practices in relation to flooding in Bangladesh (Doctoral dissertation, © Sophie Goudet).
Gribble, K. (2018). Supporting the most vulnerable through appropriate infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Journal of Human Lactation, 1, 40.
Gribble, K. D., & Berry, N. J. (2011). Emergency preparedness for those who care for infants in developed country contexts. International Breastfeeding Journal, 6(1), 16.
Gribble, K. D., McGrath, M., MacLaine, A., & Lhotska, L. (2011). Supporting breastfeeding in emergencies: Protecting women’s reproductive rights and maternal and infant health. Disasters, 35(4), 720–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.2010.01239.x.
Hipgrave, D. B., Assefa, F., Winoto, A., & Sukotjo, S. (2012). Donated breast milk substitutes and incidence of diarrhoea among infants and young children after the May 2006 earthquake in yogyakarta and central java. Public Health Nutrition, 15(2), 307–315. Retrieved from http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ffh&AN=2012-04-Gc0686&site=eds-live.
Holstius, D. M., Reid, C. E., Jesdale, B. M., & Morello-Frosch, R. (2012). Birth weight following pregnancy during the 2003 southern California wildfires. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(9), 1340.
Insurance Bureau of Canada. (2017). Severe weather, natural disasters cause record year for insurable damage in Canada (News release). Retrieved from http://www.ibc.ca/nb/resources/media-centre/media-releases/severe-weather-natural-disasters-cause-record-year-for-insurable-damage-in-canada.
Ishii, K., Goto, A., Ota, M., Yasumura, S., Abe, M., & Fujimori, K. (2016). Factors associated with infant feeding methods after the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima: Data from the pregnancy and birth survey for the fiscal year 2011 Fukushima health management survey. Maternal & Child Health Journal, 20(8), 1704–1712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-1973-5.
Lang, T., & Barling, D. (2012). Food security and food sustainability: Reformulating the debate. The Geographical Journal, 178(4), 313–326.
McNeill, I. M., Dunlop, P. D., Heath, J. B., Skinner, T. C., & Morrison, D. L. (2013). Expecting the unexpected: Predicting physiological and psychological wildfire preparedness from perceived risk, responsibility, and obstacles. Risk Analysis, 33(10), 1829–1843. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12037.
Murray, K. O., Kilborn, C., desVignes-Kendrick, M., Koers, E., Page, V., Selwyn, B. J., … Palacio, H. (2009). Emerging disease syndromic surveillance for hurricane Katrina evacuees seeking shelter in Houston’s astrodome and reliant park complex. Public Health Reports, 124(3), 364. Retrieved from http://proxyremote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.25682239&site=eds-live.
Phillips, B. D. (2014). Qualitative disaster research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pope, C. S., Ziebland, S., & Mays, N. (2000). Qualitative research in health care: Analysing qualitative data. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 7227, 114. Retrieved from http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.25186804&site=eds-live.
Pound, C. M., & Unger, S. L. (2012). The baby-friendly initiative: Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding. Paediatrics & Child Health, 17(6), 317–321.
Prudhon, C., Benelli, P., Maclaine, A., Harrigan, P., & Frize, J. (2017). Informing infant and young child feeding programming in humanitarian emergencies: An evidence map of reviews including low and middle income countries. Maternal & Child Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12457.
Shariat, M., & Abedinia, N. (2017). The effect of psychological intervention on mother-infant bonding and breastfeeding. Iranian Journal of Neonatology, 8(1), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.22038/ijn.2017.8516.
Townshend, I., Awosoga, O., Kulig, J., Botey, A. P., Shepard, B., & McFarlane, B. (2015). Impacts of wildfires on school children: A case study of slave lake, Alberta, Canada. International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters, 33(2), 148–187.
Weinman., J. (2016). What were Canada’s largest mass evacuations? Maclean’s. Retrieved from http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/what-were-canadas-biggest-mass-evacuations/.
Wood Buffalo Baby-Friendly Initiative. (2016). Wood buffalo breastfeeding statistics. Retrieved from http://babyfriendlywb.ca/about/baby-friendly-initiative-wood-buffalo/wood-buffalo-breastfeeding-statistics/.
World Health Organization, and UNICEF. (2003). Global strategy for infant and young child feeding. Geneva: World Health Organization, and UNICEF.
Acknowledgements
We thank the caregivers and families who participated in this research project. We would also like to thank Dr. Karleen Gribble for providing feedback for the early draft of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors listed contributed substantially to the research data collection and manuscript writing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Author declares that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Ethical Approval
Institutional Review Board approval was obtained by the researchers for this study and participants were given an informed consent statement before they participated in the survey.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DeYoung, S.E., Chase, J., Branco, M.P. et al. The Effect of Mass Evacuation on Infant Feeding: The Case of the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire. Matern Child Health J 22, 1826–1833 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-2585-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-2585-z