Assessment of a structured in-hospital educational intervention addressing breastfeeding: a prospective randomised open trial

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether a single one-to-one in-hospital education session could increase the rate of breastfeeding at 17 weeks.

Design: A prospective, randomised, parallel group, open trial.

Setting: A level two maternity hospital in France.

Sample: Breastfeeding mothers who were employed outside the home prenatally and were delivered of a healthy singleton.

Intervention: A structured one-to-one in-hospital education session.

Methods: One hundred and six mother-infant pairs were allocated to the intervention group and 104 to the control group (receiving usual verbal encouragement). A total of 93 mother-infant pairs in the intervention group and 97 in the control group provided complete data for final evaluation of efficacy.

Main outcome measure: Rate of breastfeeding at infant age of 17 weeks.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in the rate of any breastfeeding (34.4% in the intervention group vs 40.2% in the control group, relative risk = 0.86 [0.52-1.40]), and in the rate of exclusive breastfeeding (14.0% in the intervention group vs 14.4% in the control group, relative risk = 0.97 [0.42-2.22]).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a single in-hospital educational intervention has no effect on the breastfeeding rate at four months. Guidance provided by maternity staff should be reinforced by a long term multifaceted support programme in countries with a low to intermediate rate of breastfeeding.