Traumatic breastfeeding experience in women: Scale development, validity and reliability study

Women's experiences of breastfeeding, their perspectives on breastfeeding and the meanings they attach to it can be very different. Breastfeeding, which is considered a healthy, physiological and natural process, can be differentiated and become a traumatic experience. In this context, the aim of the study was to develop the Traumatic Breastfeeding Experience Scale and to conduct a validity and reliability study.

This methodological study was conducted with 480 women admitted to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of a public hospital. Data were collected face-to-face. Both content (content validity index) and construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) of the draft scale that the researchers created as a result of the literature review were examined. In the reliability analysis, Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient, item discrimination, item-total score correlations and test-retest method were used.

As a result of the psychometric analysis, it was concluded that the Traumatic Breastfeeding Experience Scale, which was collected under 5 sub-dimensions and 28 items, is a valid and reliable measurement tool. The Cronbach's alpha value of the scale was 0.72 and the test-retest reliability was 0.99.

The Traumatic Breastfeeding Experience Scale was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to assess the prevalence of experience of breastfeeding as traumatic. The scale developed in this direction is recommended to be used in future research and individual clinical evaluations.