A family become more complete when a baby
born. Having a baby is the most incredible thing for parents. This experience
comes with mother breastfeeding a child. Some mothers said that the role of
being mother has been more complete if she can breastfeed her child. Mothers
show their dedication of love for their babies through it – they feel happy and
the child is full. Somehow, breastfeeding practice seems about women’s task as
a mother, while there are still many husbands do not know about the importance
and barriers of breastfeeding and how they took part of it. Furthermore,
husbands’ feelings toward wives’ breastfeeding in public places are rarely
revealed.

Breastfeeding has so many benefits for
both mother and child. The child’s nutritional needs are completely contained
in breast milk, especially for the child’s healthy growth and development, as
well as for the child’s protection from illnesses or diseases. It is because
breast milk contains immune cells, antibodies and digestive enzymes that help
the child’s immune system and develop digestive system of the body. Breastfeeding
helps reducing the risk of infectious mortality and morbidity in children. Children
who are not exposed by mothers’ breast milk have higher risk of certain poor
health outcomes. SF1 

Beyond the healthiness, breastfeeding
according to McCrory & Murray (2013) improved relationship and interaction
between parents and child. It creates positive relationships between them. The
importance of breastfeeding is also acknowledged to provide psychological
benefit for parents. Not only does mother’s milk provide the right nutrients;
it also increases bonding between mothers and child. This situation helps
mothers to have low risk of postpartum depression, a situation after childbirth
which can trigger a jumble of powerful emotions, from excitement and joy to
fear and anxiety. Breastfeeding
is also improving the relationship between husband and wife. Since
breastfeeding is natural, supportive husband will feel proud of his wife who
can breastfed his child, and mother will completely happy to do her task as mom
and wife. It supports the family’s goals that husband and wife should have a
good relationship in their marriage life, especially in raising children. SF2 

Considering the importance of
breastfeeding, WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour
after birth until the baby is six months old (WHO, 2014b). It means that
until six months old baby should not be given any kind of food except
breast-milk. If possible, breastfeeding can continued for up to 2 years of age
or beyond as a part of optimal breastfeeding practices. As long as the breast-milk
is produced enough as baby needs, formula-feed is not recommended.

Globally, only 43% 0-6 month infants old
are exclusively breastfed (WHO, 2016). Rwanda, an east-central Africa country,
shows the highest rate of breastfeeding in the world, which is an impressive
rate of 85%. In Indonesia, there are only 42% children are exclusively
breastfed. The minimum implementation of Indonesian national legislation
contributes significantly to this situation. There is a law which supports
exclusive breastfeeding, but in reality the law is not widely known by mothers.
Further, there is lack of breastfeeding support campaign, while the formula
milk advertisement is more commonly found everywhere.

Breastfeeding is realized to require
efforts to make it successful. In August 2016 during the Breastfeeding week,
WHO is encouraging people to support mother to breastfeed anytime and anywhere
she had to. It means that all of societies have role to play in making the
communities more breastfeeding-friendly. In some countries such as Australia,
United States of America and some European countries, they accept and support
breastfeeding in public both in theory and practice (Komodiki et al., 2014). These countries
show the support through the campaign and make posters in any public areas.

In Indonesia, breastfeeding in public places
is still considered as taboo, in other words it should be done by mother in the
private room because it was one kind of law in Islam. Mother should not show
her breast in public because breast is female’s organ that may not be visible
according to Islam. This may influence the pattern of somebody to think about
something especially in Indonesia because the majority is Islam.

Hannan et al (as cited in Rollins et al., 2016) stated that in
some settings women who want to breastfeed in public experience negative
reactions. This might show as breastfeeding zealotry. Mother will think how she
can breastfed her baby in public places, because she might consider that other
person will be uncomfortable or certainly she cannot relax to breastfeed her
baby anytime and anywhere she has to. This situation can influence mother to do
short duration of breastfeeding. These ideas also has been cited as a reason
for mother who chooses to express and do bottle-feed their expressed milk for
her baby when they are in public places. However, unfortunately there are also
mothers who prefer to give formula bottle feed if she is not able to express
and prepare her breast milk. This is stated by a maternal expert in WHO office
that lack of knowledge and sociocultural, economic and personal reasons mean
that many women may choose to bottle-feed with formula milk completely (WHO, 2014a).

This kind of dilemma is very challenging
for mother to do breastfeeding. Family support is needed to encourage mother
not to give up on formula feed and to keep mother’s confidence to stay
optimistic that she can breastfeed her baby anytime and anywhere she has
to.  Husband is the closest person with
mother that he may influence mother in how to feed their baby. Especially in
Indonesia, majority couples are married, as it is part of Indonesian culture.
After marriage, a husband will be the head of the family; he will have a big
part to make a decision in the family. Wife will have tendency to ask and have
the husband’s opinion for anything. 
Husband’s role is very important because baby is the responsibility for
both. As a partner, husband is expected to have the same role in decision
making on how mother breastfeeds in public places. Considering that the
relationship between husband and wife brings significant impact in
breastfeeding, the father’s perception is supposed to lead how they proceed as
a part of breastfeeding-friendly community.

This
study aims to explore the husbands’ feelings towards their wives’ breastfeeding
in public places. The researcher wants to investigate what are the husband’s
opinions when his wife breastfeeding in public places and how the husband views
it.SF3  It
is intended to know the husband’s knowledge about the importance of
breastfeeding and later can be used to provide guidelines how they can
participate actively when their wives’ breastfeeding in public places.