Evaluation of breast feeding techniques among postnatal mothers and effectiveness of intervention: Experience in a tertiary care centre

Background: Effective breastfeeding (BF) is a function of proper positioning and attachment of a child to mother’s breast. However, there is paucity of data on mothers’ skills of positioning and attachment of baby and effectiveness of educating the same in the initial days of hospital stay.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of educating the postnatal mothers who were feeding with incorrect positioning and attachment on the correct BF technique and to identify the mothers needing support and the factors affecting them.  

Method: A study was done in a tertiary care hospital attached to Mysore Medical College, India, from May to September 2015. Three hundred and fifty five mothers in postnatal wards were observed when they were feeding the babies for the BF technique as per Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses guideline. All mothers who performed the technique wrongly were educated about the correct technique. These mothers were assessed again at the time of discharge by the same observer.

Results:On initial observation, 67% mothers had correct positioning and 53% babies had correct attachment. However, only 43% mothers and babies had both correct positioning and attachment while BF. After the intervention, more than 97% of mothers were able to attach their babies well and 98% were able to position their babies correctly (p<0.0001). Infant’s whole body not being well supported by mother was found to be one of the principal factors of incorrect positioning to the breast. Age, education and parity were significantly associated with mothers BF with correct technique whereas residence status of mother, mode of delivery and birth weight of baby had no significant correlation with feeding technique.

Conclusions: Educating postnatal mothers who were BF was found to be useful in improving the positioning and the attachment of the baby to the breast. Age, education and parity were significantly associated with mothers BF with correct technique. 

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2017; 46: 39-43