TY - JOUR
T1 - Breastfeeding media coverage and beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
T2 - implications for breastfeeding equity
AU - Vilar-Compte, M.
AU - Gaitán-Rossi, P.
AU - Rhodes, E. C.
AU - Cruz-Villalba, V.
AU - Pérez-Escamilla, R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Eficiencia Informativa for their work with the media coverage analysis, as well as Natalia Rovelo for her support in the media analysis data management. We made extensive use of the COVID-19, Breastfeeding, Infant Feeding, and Breast Milk repository and would like to thank the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health for this initiative.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant for the Research Center for Equitable Development (EQUIDE) at Universidad Iberoamericana devoted to measure the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly Index Mexico 2020 (PI: Mireya Vilar-Compte). Elizabeth C. Rhodes was supported by grant number K12HL138037 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The content is solely responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Background: Because breastfeeding offers short- and long- term health benefits to mothers and children, breastfeeding promotion and support is a public health priority. Evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to be transmitted via breastmilk. Moreover, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be contained in breastmilk of mothers with history of COVID-19 infection or vaccination. WHO recommends direct breastfeeding as the preferred infant feeding option during the COVID-19 pandemic, even among women with COVID-19; but conflicting practices have been adopted, which could widen existing inequities in breastfeeding. This study aims to describe how information about breastfeeding was communicated in Mexican media during the pandemic and assess Mexican adults’ beliefs regarding breastfeeding among mothers infected with COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a retrospective content analysis of media coverage on breastfeeding in Mexico between March 1 and September 24, 2020, excluding advertisements. For the content analysis, we performed both a sentiment analysis and an analysis based on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) for breastfeeding promotion. Additionally, we conducted a descriptive analysis of nationally representative data on adults’ beliefs about breastfeeding from the July 2020 round of the ENCOVID-19 survey in Mexico and stratified the results by gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Results: A total of 1014 publications on breastfeeding were identified on the internet and television and in newspapers and magazines. Most information was published during World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated in August. The sentiment analysis showed that 57.2% of all information was classified as positive. The SWOT analysis indicated that most information focused on current actions, messages, policies, or programs that enable breastfeeding (i.e., strengths) or those not currently in place but that may enable breastfeeding (i.e., opportunities) for breastfeeding promotion. However, ENCOVID-19 survey results showed that 67.3% of adults living in households with children under 3 years of age believe that mothers with COVID-19 should not breastfeed, and 19.8% do not know whether these mothers should breastfeed. These beliefs showed differences both by gender and by socioeconomic status. Conclusions: While the Mexican government endorsed the recommendation on breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic, communication was sporadic, inconstant and unequal across types of media. There was a widespread notion that mothers with COVID-19 should not breastfeed and due to differences on beliefs by socioeconomic status, health inequities could be exacerbated by increasing the risk of poorer breastfeeding practices and preventing vulnerable groups from reaping the short and long-term benefits of breastfeeding.
AB - Background: Because breastfeeding offers short- and long- term health benefits to mothers and children, breastfeeding promotion and support is a public health priority. Evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to be transmitted via breastmilk. Moreover, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be contained in breastmilk of mothers with history of COVID-19 infection or vaccination. WHO recommends direct breastfeeding as the preferred infant feeding option during the COVID-19 pandemic, even among women with COVID-19; but conflicting practices have been adopted, which could widen existing inequities in breastfeeding. This study aims to describe how information about breastfeeding was communicated in Mexican media during the pandemic and assess Mexican adults’ beliefs regarding breastfeeding among mothers infected with COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a retrospective content analysis of media coverage on breastfeeding in Mexico between March 1 and September 24, 2020, excluding advertisements. For the content analysis, we performed both a sentiment analysis and an analysis based on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) for breastfeeding promotion. Additionally, we conducted a descriptive analysis of nationally representative data on adults’ beliefs about breastfeeding from the July 2020 round of the ENCOVID-19 survey in Mexico and stratified the results by gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Results: A total of 1014 publications on breastfeeding were identified on the internet and television and in newspapers and magazines. Most information was published during World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated in August. The sentiment analysis showed that 57.2% of all information was classified as positive. The SWOT analysis indicated that most information focused on current actions, messages, policies, or programs that enable breastfeeding (i.e., strengths) or those not currently in place but that may enable breastfeeding (i.e., opportunities) for breastfeeding promotion. However, ENCOVID-19 survey results showed that 67.3% of adults living in households with children under 3 years of age believe that mothers with COVID-19 should not breastfeed, and 19.8% do not know whether these mothers should breastfeed. These beliefs showed differences both by gender and by socioeconomic status. Conclusions: While the Mexican government endorsed the recommendation on breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic, communication was sporadic, inconstant and unequal across types of media. There was a widespread notion that mothers with COVID-19 should not breastfeed and due to differences on beliefs by socioeconomic status, health inequities could be exacerbated by increasing the risk of poorer breastfeeding practices and preventing vulnerable groups from reaping the short and long-term benefits of breastfeeding.
KW - Breastfeeding
KW - COVID-19
KW - Inequities
KW - Infant feeding
KW - Media analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122307401&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12939-021-01588-y
DO - 10.1186/s12939-021-01588-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 34930273
AN - SCOPUS:85122307401
SN - 1475-9276
VL - 20
JO - International Journal for Equity in Health
JF - International Journal for Equity in Health
IS - 1
M1 - 260
ER -