Self-efficacy in breastfeeding support: a research on Italian midwifery students.

Background and aim of the study: Maternal breastmilk represents the best nourishment for the newborn baby during its first six months, as it offers several benefits for the health and well-being of babies and mothers. In order to promote, protect and support effectively mother and child during breastfeeding, it is essential for midwives to be properly educated and to acquire highly professionalizing skills. This study aimed to evaluate the level of self-efficacy of the students attending the Degree Course of Midwifery, regarding the support of mother and child in breastfeeding. Method: A questionnaire of 37 items (Blackmanet al, 2015) validated in Italian by Mazzeo Melchionda (2019), was sent on-line to students of ten different Midwifery Degree Courses to assess their level of self-efficacy regarding the management of breastfeeding. Statistical analysis was carried out using statistic software R3.4.3 (The Foundation for Statistical Computing). Results: 158 questionnaires were collected from ten Italian Midwifery Degree Courses. The areas in which students showed a high level of self-efficacy in managing breastfeeding include: the benefits of breastfeeding; the child’s tendency to take the breast within an hour from childbirth and the relevance of skin to skin contact and rooming-in. Low levels of self-efficacy concerned the comfortably breastfeeding in public places and avoiding giving formula to the baby in its first six weeks of life. Conclusions: Generally the students attending Midwifery Degree Courses show a high level of self-efficacy in assisting mothers during breastfeeding and they prove to have a good knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding to improve the health of mothers and their children. (www.actabiomedica.it)

The effect of vacuum and air annealing in the physical characteristics and photocatalytic efficiency of In2S3:Ag thin films produced by spray pyrolysis

Indium sulfide thin films, doped with silver, were synthesized by spray pyrolysis technique. These samples were subsequently annealed in air and in vacuum, at the temperature of 400 ◦C, for 2 h. This work reports the effect of the thermal treatments on the structure, morphology and optical characteristics of the films, but also the study of the photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue solution. The as-produced films are polycrystalline, exhibiting the tetragonal β-phase structure of In2S3. The annealing treatments cause an increase of 27% and 74% of the crystallite size, and of the roughness of the films (20% and 56%), for the vacuum and air annealed samples, respectively, but provoke a significant decrease of the optical transmittance. The optical band gap decreases from 2.71 eV in the as-produced film, to 2.45 eV and 2.39 eV in the vacuum and air-annealed films, respectively. The photodegradation efficiency of the methylene blue solution increases from 83.0% for the as-produced film to around 95.4%, regardless the type of annealing.Grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN–III–P1-1.1-TE-2019-1209, within PNCDI II