The effectiveness of prenatal breastfeeding education and postnatal breastfeeding support among primiparous mothers in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
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Date
2016
Authors
Fauzi, Rosuzeita
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Background: In Malaysia, the rates of mothers who are breastfeeding exclusively
remain low, even though the World Health Organization had recommended the
mother to breastfeed their infants exclusively for the first six months of age. The
government hopes and expects that the percentage of exclusive breastfeeding
practice among babies six months of age will increase to 30% by 2015. Objective:
To determine the effectiveness of prenatal breastfeeding education and postnatal
breastfeeding support in improving breastfeeding outcomes. Method: A quasiexperimental
design was used to test the effects of intervention on breastfeeding
confidence, exclusivity and duration. A purposive sample of 96 primigravida
mothers (intervention group (IG) =48, control group (CG) =48) had been recruited
from the Obstetrics and Gynaecology clinic and antenatal ward at Hospital USM.
Data were collected using the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form
(BSES-SF) and the Breastfeeding Assessment Questionnaire. Mothers in the IG
received current usual care and two hours of additional education programme on
breastfeeding (lecture, educational video, demonstration, practical and discussion) in
a small group, breastfeeding booklet, note from the module, and received postnatal
breastfeeding support in the first week of postpartum. Mothers in CG received the
current usual care only. The mothers were assessed at the first and sixth week and
then the fourth and sixth month of postpartum. Results: Mothers in the IG had
greater breastfeeding self-efficacy score (M= 57.19, SD= 6.49) at the first week of
postpartum than mothers in the CG (M= 53.85, SD= 7.50), p= 0.023. A greater
percentage of mothers in the IG were practicing full breastfeeding compared to the
CG at all of the follow up weeks: 1 week (77.1% vs. 60.9%), 6 weeks (53.2% vs.
42.2%), 4 months (54.3% vs. 29.5%) and 6 months (27.3% vs. 16.7%) postpartum
respectively. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference
between the groups at the fourth month postpartum (X2=5.671, p= 0.017). The results
indicated that the continuation of breastfeeding rates of the IG were higher than those
of the CG at all four follow-up periods. However, the results showed only two follow
up weeks that were significant (week 6, X2=5.414, p= 0.020, month 4, X2=7.515,
p= 0.006). The mean duration of breastfeeding in the IG was 20.8 weeks compared to
17.0 weeks in the CG. Conclusions: Prenatal breastfeeding education and postnatal
support can effectively increase breastfeeding confidence, duration and exclusivity
outcomes among primiparous mothers.
Description
Keywords
Breast feeding