The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Pandemic worsened new moms’ worries: study
The arrival of COVID-19 left many new Nova Scotia mothers extra worried about how they feed their babies, according to the results of a new study.
Kyly Whitfield, assistant professor in Mount Saint Vincent University's department of applied human nutrition, conducted the online survey with her MAMA lab team at the school.
When the province's state of emergency was declared at the end of March last year, Whitfield's team put together a survey to try to understand what was happening with the caregivers of babies under six months of age.
“That's the period of exclusive milk feeding,” Whitfield said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “Babies shouldn't be eating any solids at that point. So we wanted to kind of capture this feeding experience in early life under these new rules.”
Whitfield said things were tightly shut down at the time — people couldn't even go to parks in Nova Scotia — so the purpose of the study was to understand how that affected the feeding of the babies as well as the stress levels of parents.
The online survey was offered for caregivers across Nova Scotia from April 17 to May 17. Whitfield said 335 families responded.
INCREASED WORRY
“What we found was that there was a lot of worry and concern,” she said. “It was mostly moms who filled out the survey – 99 per cent were moms. So, moms were worried and concerned about all sorts of things, but we didn't see many changes happening, which is interesting . ... We were quite worried if money was tight, maybe inappropriate foods would be introduced. We weren't really seeing that, it was just a lot of fretting.”
She said they didn't see differences in concerns across a number of factors that one might think would, like geographic location in the province, by race, or income level.
“But we did see that ... 75 per cent of the sample had a moderate self perceived stress.”
The main differences seen were in what mothers worried about depending on whether they were breastfeeding or feeding with formula.
“The breastfeeding moms were kind of concerned about if their babies were gaining enough weight – and that's a common concern. That's the number 1 reason why Canadian moms stop breastfeeding, is that they're worried that they don't have enough milk supply. And so, that's something that was happening before, it was just exacerbated by the pandemic.
“The formula feeding moms tended to be more concerned about accessing formula. They would need to drive around to multiple locations to try to find formula because other people were stockpiling. And there were a few moms that were worried about finances and affording formula.”
Parents would normally be able to get formula at any retail outlet. But during the pandemic, many were closed or there were big lineups, Whitfield said.
“And there was hesitancy about doing in-person shopping.”
BRAND LOYALTY
Another interesting result they found was that moms are hesitant to buy a different brand if a baby is doing well on a particular formula, even though Whitfield said Canada's regulations about formula are so tight there's not much difference between them.
So families said if their brand was sold out at their regular store, they drove around to other places to find it, and maybe then stockpiled it, themselves.
Also another concern that was common with all moms, no matter if they were breastfeeding or formula feeding was a feeling of isolation and not having their regular networks, Whitfield said.
“At that time — again, we're thinking of last spring — the mom and baby groups at libraries and grocery stores and public spaces were stopped. They were shut down. Some of them were moved online. Now, almost all of these are available online and there's kind of a big online community for families with young children, but at that point, there was just a lot of feelings of isolation. So that was a big concern.”
There were also concerns about socialization, where moms were worried that their babies were only seeing their face instead of a variety of people.
FEELING THAT THEY COULDN’T GET HELP
“When you look specifically at breastfeeding moms, who said that they were experiencing breastfeeding challenges, two-thirds of them said that they were specifically not getting access to lactation supports.”
They couldn't go see a public health nurse to ask about positioning or latch, or they couldn't get an in-person visit with a lactation consultant, which they found isolating and challenging. Whitfield said a lot of these moms considered switching to formula because of that.
Economically, 59 per cent of moms had no economic changes, but 75 per cent were already receiving maternity benefits through EI, Whitfield said.
CONSULTATION
Whitfield added that after the study results became clear, her lab has had some stakeholder meetings with lactation consultants, nurses and community groups, to share the findings about how families' worries became exacerbated by the pandemic.
“So we're trying to spark change,” she said. “We've partnered up with some lactation consultants and healthcare providers to make it kind of FAQ videos that will be coming online soon, walking through how do I know if my baby is gaining enough weight if I don't have a scale. And kind of these easy, at-home ways to tackle some of these common feeding challenges.”
Whitfield is hoping these videos, which her MAMA lab is planning to have online in the next couple of weeks, will be helpful beyond the pandemic.
A summary of the MAMA lab study is available at https://www.mamalab. ca/infant-feeding-during-covid19 and the full research paper can be read at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ full/10.1111/mcn.13154