Table 1 Search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria mapped to PEO framework

Study population

Mothers of preterm (< 37 weeks gestation) or low birth weight (< 2500 g) infants who have been admitted to a neonatal unit

Neonatal unit = Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU)

Mothers whose infants were not admitted to neonatal unit, infants not preterm or low birth weight

mother* or maternal or women*

low birth weight or preterm* or premature*

Exposure in context

Mothers’ experiences, perspectives, in neonatal units, in the transitional phase between hospital and home, or at home after discharge from neonatal unit

Outcomes

Data concerns experiences of feeding infants their own breast milk

Never provided their own breast milk to their infant, experiences of expressing breast milk, experiences of providing bank milk

experience* or perception* or perspective* or view* breast feed* or breastfeed* or breast milk or breastmilk or breast pump* or breastpump* or human milk or lactation* or lactating

Date

2008 to present

Prior to 2008

limit to yr = “2008 -Current”

Study type

Qualitative studies, mixed-methods

Purely quantitative based studies, clinical case studies, reviews, theses, opinion pieces, grey literature.

ethnograph* or fieldwork or field work or focus group* or informant* or interview* or mixed method* or narration* or narrative* or open question* or participat* observation* or qualitative* or semi-structured or semistructured or thematic analys*

Language

English, Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian published articles

Any other languages

limit to english or finnish or norwegian or swedish