Breastfeeding Experiences of African-Black Immigrant Women in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Breastfeeding confers numerous benefits to both the mother and child. Despite these benefits, global breastfeeding rates remain low compared to the World Health Assembly targets. Migrating to another country adds another dimension, playing a significant role in shaping breastfeeding practices. This study examined African-Black Immigrant women’s breastfeeding experiences pre- and post-migration to highlight important facilitators and barriers. This qualitative study explored the lived experience of African-Black Immigrant women using an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. From August to October 2024, five participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Interviews were semi-structured, in English, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim, then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Data management was done with Microsoft Word and Excel. To ensure rigour, member checking, peer debriefing, and reflexive journaling were applied. Ethics was granted by the University of Saskatchewan’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (Beh-REB) (ID 4995). Five main themes emerged: (1) Positive breastfeeding experiences & maternal experiences, (2) family and community support, (3) cultural practices and societal acceptance, (4) healthcare support & access to resources and (5) barriers and challenges to breastfeeding. The first 3 themes are related to the breastfeeding experiences, while themes 4 and 5 are related to the facilitators and challenges. Migration created barriers such as cultural shifts, healthcare navigation, language difficulties, and social isolation. Despite this, resilience, traditional knowledge and community support helped women continue breastfeeding. These findings highlight the importance of culturally inclusive breastfeeding support services that enable African-Black Immigrant women to address breastfeeding challenges in Canada. This information can be used to craft healthcare policies and interventions aimed at enhancing both maternal and child health outcomes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.009 | 0.005 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".