MATERNAL MOOD STATES BEFORE AND DURING INFANT FEEDING (BREAST, BOTTLE, NURSING).
Contributors: Saybrook Institute.
Published: 1983
Number of pages: 113
Subjects: Psychology, Developmental.
Description: This research investigates mood states of a population of 34 lactating women who both breast and bottle feed their infants. Women using both feeding styles are employed as subjects to control for possible individual differences. Randomly assigned breast, bottle and control groups are compared. Eight mood states (anxiety, guilt, extraversion, arousal, stress, depression, regression and fatigue) are measured 1/2 hour before and during feeding sessions using the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Eight State Questionnaire.

Major findings are: (1) negative or self-handicapping moods, namely, anxiety, stress, depression, regression, fatigue and guilt increased in bottle feeding mothers compared with themselves when they breast fed and compared with a control group. (2) Positive feelings, namely extroversion and arousal, increased with breast feeding. (3) Lactating women exhibit a pattern of anticipatory mood orientation prior to both breast and bottle feeding.

Interpretation emphasizes both an apparently classically conditioned learning effect and the possible role of a hormone, oxytocin, in stimulating maternal euphoria in anticipation and during breast feeding. The clear, strong pattern of positive affective arousal demonstrated in this study to be associated with breast feeding enhances the possibility that breast feeding has substantial effects in the interpersonal interaction of mother and infant. Mood states of mothers during infant feeding may be a crucial intervening variable affecting maternal-infant interpersonal security.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-12, Section: B, page: 3974.

Thesis (PH.D.)--SAYBROOK INSTITUTE, 1983.

School code: 0795.