Skilled Counseling in Enhancing Early and Exclusive Breastfeeding Rates: An Experimental Study in an Urban Population in India

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The study was conducted to evaluate the effect ofbreastfeeding counseling and breastfeeding support by trainedcounselors during the ante-natal period at health facility and post-natal period at home on breastfeeding practices during the first sixmonths of life.Design: This was a randomized controlled study that comparedthe effect of counseling on breastfeeding during the first 6 monthsof life.Setting: study was done in a government medical college innorthern India, which is situated in an urban area.Participants: 300 healthy pregnant women from an urbanpopulation attending the antenatal clinic at Jawaharlal NehruMedical College, Aligarh Muslim University were recruited for thestudy.Intervention Subjects were equally assigned randomly to theintervention (2 antenatal and 8 postpartum home counseling visitsby the counselors) and control (non-counseling) group.Main Outcome Measures: Infant feeding practices includingrates of initiation of the breastfeeding within one hour of birth;exclusive breastfeeding and bottle-feeding during the first 6months of life.Results: Initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth was73.4% in intervention group as compared to 33.6% in controlgroup (P=0.001). More mothers in the intervention group (88.1%)were able to sustain exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months ofage in comparison to the control group (50%) (OR 7.44, 95% CI3.98-13.92).Conclusions: This study substantiates positive role of skilledcounseling by a trained dedicated breastfeeding counselorduring the antenatal and post-natal periods on breastfeedingpractices during the first six months of life.