The most recent data suggests new moms should receive more medical advice from doctors, a new survey revealed on Monday. The study that was conducted with the participation of 1,000 young mothers has proven that the recommendations that mothers get from medical experts, family members and the media are often contradictory and wrong.
Dr. Clay Jones, one of the members of the Hospital in Massachusetts and co-author of the research explained that the recent research was funded by the American Academy of Pediatrics to determine the needs that new moms have and the changes that the medical system should enact to improve services.
The 1,000 U.S. female respondents, who have taken part in the research, were assigned various questionnaires containing questions related to their experience as mothers. The participants were young mothers as their newborn babies were two or six month years old.
Most questions were related to highly discussed subjects and matters concerning the first months of motherhood. Scientists were particularly interested in determining how much information mothers get on breast feeding, pacifiers, babies’ sleeping position or vaccines and where they get them from.
Results have shown that most mothers follow doctors’ recommendations in most cases; yet, physicians’ advice does not always match the pediatric recommendations of the AAP, experts have concluded, based on the data collected by their survey.
15 percent of the information that doctors give on breast feeding and pacifiers is in opposition to AAP’s suggestions. By analyzing the answers provided by mothers, 26 percent of advice on baby’s sleeping positions have turned out wrong when analyzed by the AAP.
It seems that opinions vary, too, when it comes to deciding where the baby sleeps best. While the AAP does not recommend mothers to sleep with their babies in the same bed, many medical experts have advised young mothers to do so. The percentage of wrong recommendations amounts to 29%, researchers have concluded.
The other two important sources that mothers rely on when it comes to raising their newborns, are the media (60%) and their family members (30%). This practice could have a negative impact on mothers as most advices did not match pediatrics’ recommendations. 20 percent of the breastfeeding recommendations that mothers got from family members were biased, whereas the media provided 70 percent mismatched recommendations on the same topic.
This being said, it has become obvious that young mothers need reliable sources of information to properly raise their children. Researchers believe the baby’s doctor is the most reliable to give recommendations as he is familiar both with the mother and the child.
The findings of the current study were published in the journal of Pediatrics.
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