Spiritual Aspects of Breastfeeding: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Context: Although positive outcomes of breastfeeding on both mothers and infants are well documented, few studies have investigated the spiritual aspects of breastfeeding. This study conducted a narrative review of the research on spiritual and religious beliefs for breastfeeding. Evidence acquisition: All papers from 2000 to 2018 about the study subject were searched in the international databases. The measured outcome included different breastfeeding behaviors in mothers with different religions. Results: In this study, 69 related studies were reviewed and finally 9 articles were selected. One article was about the influence of breastfeeding on the spiritual status of mothers and 8 articles were about the effect of religious beliefs on different breastfeeding behaviors. Conclusion: The results of this review showed that spirituality can influence the management of breastfeeding behavior. More attention should be paid to spirituality interventions to acknowledge the high priority in breastfeeding because it may allow public health officials to more effectively promote breastfeeding policies.