The relationship of postpartum sleep quality and breastfeeding self-efficacy of Turkish mothers

INTRODUCTION: Breastfeeding self-efficacy reflects the mother's confidence regarding breastfeeding, and it positively affects breastfeeding. Traditionally, people attach importance to breastfeeding in Turkey and the vast majority of mothers breastfeed their babies. It is a known fact that mothers feel sleepless and tired in the postpartum period reduces the amount of secreted milk. However, it is not known whether there is a relationship between the perception of breastfeeding self-efficacy which positively affects breastfeeding and sleep quality of the mothers in this period. AIM: This study was conducted in order to determine the relationship between sleep quality and breastfeeding self-efficacy of the mothers in the postpartum period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive study included 128 primiparous women who had vaginal deliveries from 2 January to 27 May 2018 in a public obstetrics and children's hospital in Mersin. The data of the research were gathered with a questionnaire intended for collecting the sociodemographic characteristics of mothers who completed their second week in the postpartum period, Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale intended for determining their sleep quality and Breastfeeding Self-efficacy Scale intended for determining their breastfeeding self-efficacy. The data obtained were assessed with the Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the descriptive statistics and two continuous variables. RESULTS: The mean score gotten by the mothers from Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale and Breastfeeding Self-efficacy Scale was determined to be '33.57 +/- 11.26' and '46.82 +/- 14.89', respectively. A strong relationship in the negative direction was detected between the scores gotten from Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale and Breastfeeding Self-efficacy Scale (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the research, it was determined that as the sleep quality of mothers in the postpartum period increases their breastfeeding self-efficacy increases as well. In the light of the results obtained, it is suggested that nurses, being aware that there is a strong relationship between sleep quality and breastfeeding self-efficacy in the postpartum period, should pay more attention to the role of education and counselling in these subjects. In addition, it is recommended that nurses make attempts intended for improving the sleep quality of primiparous individuals in order to increase their self-efficacy of breastfeeding.