Table 6 Workplace breastfeeding interventions and their association with BF support, quantitative studies

Seijts GH, Yip J. (2008) [50]

Canada

Alumni of a large Canadian business school, living in Canada at the time of the study (n = 220)

Cross-sectional

-Support from colleagues

Support for BF accommodation in the workplace

Pearson correlation

ANOVA

Employees with children reported stronger support for BF accommodations (i.e. lactation space), this was mediated by knowledge

Very low

Suyes K, Abrahams SW, Labbok MH (2008) [51]

USA (Southeastern)

Employees of a corporation that has a reputation of being “family friendly” (n = 407)

Cross-sectional

-BF education

-Designated spaces for BF or expressing milk

-Flexible scheduling to support milk expression

-Provision of breast pumps

-Support from colleagues

Index of BF Attitudes (IBA)

Linear regression

Having had a co-worker who BF or expressed milk at work was associated with 2.4 point increase in average IBA score. Having ever breastfed was also positively associated with the score.

Low

Zhuang J, Bresnahan M, Zhu Y, Yan XD, Bogdan-Lovis E, Goldbort J, et al. (2018) [52]

USA

Working adults (males and females) drawn form a representative sample of almost every state (n = 1000, n = 168 women who were BF at the time of the interview)

Cross-sectional

-Designated spaces for BF or expressing milk

-Provision of breast pumps

-Other

Stigma about BF, intention to help a nursing coworker, self-efficacy of pumping

ANOVA, bivariate correlations. HLM and SEM models

Behavior intention to help BF coworkers was explained by perception of fairness, coworker support and stigmatization (47% of the variance). “Ick response” was positively associated with stigma, and negatively associated with support and fairness.

Self-efficacy to pump at work. For women still BF, models showed that perceptions of fairness (ß = 0.3) and coworkers’ support (ß = 0.24) were positively associated (relationships were confirmed by the SEM)

Low