- Introduction
The title of this research paper is “To determine the effects of a prenatal breastfeeding workshop on maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding duration”. The setting of this research is in the city of Ontario in Canada. The intended population in this research is a woman in Canada (Noel-Weiss et al., 2006, p.128). The size of the sample used in this research is a hundred and ten. The characteristics of this representative sample include women who are expecting to deliver a single child. The child has to be healthy and fully developed and cognitive. The purpose of the research is to draft a plan and learning principles that can be used by mothers to effectively breastfeed their children within a given duration of time. From the observation of the behavioral dynamics of the representative sample, this paper aims to come up with an efficient theory regarding the duration of breastfeeding.
- Purpose of the Study.
This research is based on the behavioral dynamic of women attending a workshop in Ontario, Canada. The author’s in this research intend to establish whether there is a difference in the breastfeeding patterns of women who attended the workshop and those who didn’t. The data collected will entail both women who attended the conference and those who did not. From this data, it is evident that women who attended the workshop had a higher self-efficiency with regards to breastfeeding compared to women who did not attend the conference. Despite the fact that the fact that women who attended the conference had a lesser breastfeeding period. It is clear that the average of times that both sets of women breastfed their babies was almost the same. The difference was negligible.
The title of the paper is congruent with the problems that are presented in this research. The title aims at looking at the influence of clinical and pediatric advice of new mothers and the influence that this has on the weaning habits. It is clear from the conclusions established in this paper that the guiding questions of the paper seek to address the purpose outlined in the title. The purpose of this paper is relevant to the field of nursing. This is because nursing is aimed at making sure that people are able to adopt healthier life styles based on the advices and the procedures that they obtain in the clinical environment. The fact that women who attended the workshop seem to have different weaning patterns illustrates that the clinical and nursing advice and instructions that was provided to them was effective. This is because the women in the workshop had a higher efficacy in terms of weaning compared to their counterparts who did not attend the workshop.
This paper has elaborate research questions and a clear hypothesis. The research questions are structured on facts and behavioral patterns that are delivered from the data analysis of the participants used in the research. The hypothesis in this research paper is based on the empirical outcome of the research conducted. By looking at each case scenario, the research is able to come up with a hypothesis that is founded on facts, and data. The fact that this research is based on empirical data makes it more dependable. This is because empirical data is value free. Empirical data is not subject of opinions and other biases that might result in the research process (Grbich, 2004, p.114). The research questions that are selected in this research are attainable. This means that the researchers are logical in the kind of research questions that they seek to answer in the course of the research. Therefore, the research questions are based on the material at hand, and the hypothesis is based on empirical data and the behavioral dynamic of the representative sample that is used for this research.
The problems and challenges that are faced in this research are well outlined in the research. This strategy is meant to make it known to the readers that there is room for the development of other ideas or the methodology of this research. One of the major problems that are cited by the authors of this research paper is the fact that the number of participants that are used for this research is relatively small. The representative sample that is used in this research is a hundred and ten participants. However, the hypothesis would be more efficient if the representative sample was a bit bigger. Despite the citation of these problems in the research it is important to understand that using a bigger sample might be more susceptible to errors. This is because the researchers might not be able to adequately monitor all the participants that are involved in the research. The use of a larger representative sample also increases the cost of the material that is used in conducting this research. For example, the actions of mothers in this workshop were monitored using videos and cameras. All these videos had to be purchased for the success of this project. Therefore, the larger the representatives sample the more investments, in terms of resources, that the researchers had to make in conducting this research.
This research identifies the independent variable and the dependent variable. In this case, the attendance of the workshop is the independent variable in this research. On the other hand, the behavioral dynamics of the women who attended the workshop is the dependent variable. The weaning patterns of the women who received clinical and pediatric directives at the workshop were different compared to women who did not attend the conference. It is therefore clear in this research that the behavior of women in this research was dependent on the whether the women attended the workshop or they did not.
It is also clear from this research that there were some assumptions that researchers made in creating a hypothesis in this research. One of the key assumptions that researchers made in this research was the fact that the women that were used as participants in this research had similar characteristics. Every single woman expects that there are going to have healthy babies. However, this does not always turn out to be the case. In some case, some babies do not wean the same. There are babies who do not like breastfeeding. This means that mothers in such a situation would face more difficulty in being able to breastfeed their babies regularly. Therefore, the characters of the individual babies are not put into consideration in this research. The authors assume that all babies are the same and are likely to wean at the same rate. This assumption might not be effective for this research because it limits researchers from coming up with a well-defined theory regarding efficacy in the weaning and breastfeeding process. The health of the mother after giving birth is also another assumption that is made in this research. The waning habits of mothers are also dependent on the overall health of the mothers. The more the mothers are healthy the more the mothers are going to breastfeed their children
- Research Perspective
The literature review and theoretical framework of this research is relevant to the problem that is addressed in this research. The overarching the theory that the authors of this research intend to make is the idea that the attendance of the workshop had an influence in the weaning habit of the women who were in attendance. This research intends to support the notion that through proper training and provision of information women can be in a position to adopt healthier living practices. Weaning in this case is important for the both the mothers and their children. The more time that mothers spend with their babies the more they were likely to engage in breastfeeding. It is clear from this intervention group that it had influence on the general quality of the way that weaning was conducted by these mothers. Mothers who were being monitored and directed by clinical officers on how to conduct the weaning process were more likely to have a higher breastfeeding efficacy compared to women who did not attend the workshop.
The literatures that are used to support this research are logical and relevant to the topic. The author’s borrow some of the assumption that they make from prior researches that have been conducted regarding related topics. The references that are used for the paper are appropriate because they help support the research questions that are used to structure this research paper. One thing that is important to understand is that the inferences and hypotheses that are made in this research are based on quantitative research methodology. However, in order to substantiate the hypotheses made in this research the authors have used both qualitative and quantitate material that had been used in prior researches. These approaches increase the credibility of the research because it is not purely based on the opinions and interpretations of the authors are based on facts and other researches that had been conducted by other researchers on the same topic (Creswell, 2003).
The study design that is used in conducting this research is a mixture of both quantitative research methodology and qualitative research. This is because this research paper is founded on both the behavioral dynamics of the representative sample and the empirical data that is derived from data and data analysis in the research. The data was collected using videos and cameras that were used to record the behavioral patterns of women around their children in the workshop. These were efficient ways to collect data because technology is more efficient. Based on the fact that there were many activities that were taking place during the workshop, it would be difficult for researchers to individually be involved in the collection of data. The use of videos and cameras allowed the researchers to work on other elements of the research. It is also clear that women were more likely to behave differently in the presence of the researchers. In order to prevent different behavioral dynamics that would distort the outcome of the research, it was efficient that for the researchers to use videos and cameras in collecting data. Videos and cameras are also more dependable in terms of efficiency and memory compared to relying on individuals. In this way the research was more efficient compared to if the researchers were manually involved in monitoring the actions of the women in the research environment.
The sampling procedure was appropriate. This is because the general hypotheses were based on an average of the behavioral dynamics that were associated with the a hundred and ten participants. The participants had almost similar characteristics. This was instrumental in increasing the similarity of the actions of the participants that were used as a representative sample. In terms of morality, this research was appropriate. This is because information was not relayed to third parties without the consent of the participants involved in the research process. The participants had the option of either attending or not attending the workshop. The attendance of the workshop illustrates the fact that the women had consented to the idea of having their information used in the creation of this research. Personal information of the participants in this research is also protected. This means that there are no individual names that are used in the research without the person’s consent. Therefore, it is worthwhile to conclude that this research design is moral and protects the study subjects involved.
References
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Grbich, C. (2004). New approaches in social research. London: SAGE.
Noel-Weiss, J., Rupp, A., Cragg, B., Bassett, V., & Woodend, A. K. (2006). Randomized controlled trial to determine effects of prenatal breastfeeding workshop on maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding duration. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 35(5), 616-624.
