title: An intervention to discourage Australian mothers from unnecessarily exposing their babies to the sun for therapeutic reasons.
abstract: Parents play a key role in children's sun-protective behaviour, with good sun-protective habits established early tending to be sustained. We designed a maternity hospital-based educational intervention to reduce myths that could result in mothers intentionally sunning their babies. Interviews were conducted with two cross-sections of healthy post-partum inpatients in the maternity ward of a large regional public hospital. The first group (n = 106) was recruited before the commencement of educational in-services for maternity nursing staff; the second group (n = 203) was interviewed after the last staff in-service session. More pre-intervention than post-intervention women reported they would expose their baby to sunlight to: treat suspected jaundice (28.8% vs. 13.3%; p < 0.001) or help their baby's skin adapt to sunlight (10.5% vs. 2.5%; p = 0.003). Fewer post-intervention women indicated they would sun themselves to treat breastfeeding-associated sore/cracked nipples (7.6% vs. 2%; p = 0.026). This educational intervention should be used to educate parents, health professionals and students.
authors.affiliation: Skin Cancer Research Group, Anton Brienl Centre, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville Qld 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Devine
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buettner
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006771:Hospitals, Maternity; D006801:Humans; D007224:Infant Care; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D049590:Postpartum Period; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013472:Sunlight / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: infants; nappy rash; neonatal jaundice; perceived therapeutic benefits; post-partum women; sun exposure