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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Jan;106(1):49-54.
doi: 10.1111/apa.13601. Epub 2016 Oct 28.

Effect of a randomised exclusive breastfeeding counselling intervention nested into the MINIMat prenatal nutrition trial in Bangladesh

Ashraful Islam Khan  1 , Iqbal Kabir  1 , Hanna Eneroth  2 , Shams El Arifeen  1 , Eva-Charlotte Ekström  2 , Edward A Frongillo  3 , Lars Åke Persson  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effect of a randomised exclusive breastfeeding counselling intervention nested into the MINIMat prenatal nutrition trial in Bangladesh

Ashraful Islam Khan et al. Acta Paediatr. 2017 Jan.

Abstract

Aim: It is unknown whether maternal malnutrition reduces the effect of counselling on exclusive breastfeeding. This study evaluated the effect of breastfeeding counselling on the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, and whether the timing of prenatal food and different micronutrient supplements further prolonged this duration.

Methods: Pregnant women in Matlab, Bangladesh, were randomised to receive daily food supplements of 600 kcal at nine weeks of gestation or at the standard 20 weeks. They also were allocated to either 30 mg of iron and 400 μg folic acid, or the standard programme 60 mg of iron and folic acid or multiple micronutrients. At 30 weeks of gestation, 3188 women were randomised to receive either eight breastfeeding counselling sessions or the usual health messages.

Results: The median duration of exclusive breastfeeding was 135 days in the counselling group and 75 days in the usual health message group (p < 0.001). Prenatal supplements did not modify the effects of counselling. Women in the usual health message group who were randomised to multiple micronutrients exclusively breastfed for 12 days longer than mothers receiving the standard iron-folate combination (p = 0.003).

Conclusion: Breastfeeding counselling increased the duration of exclusive breastfeeding by 60 days. This duration was not influenced by the supplements.

Keywords: Counselling; Exclusive breastfeeding; Food and micronutrient supplementation; Pregnancy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flow chart. The distribution of pregnant women and their children in the exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) counselling groups and the numbers lost to follow‐up during the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions in Matlab (MINIMat) trial.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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