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A randomized controlled trial of an antenatal intervention to increase exclusive breastfeeding

In Hong Kong, while around 85% of mothers choose to breastfeed their infants, most discontinue within the first one to two months postpartum. This indicates that there is room for improving the current breastfeeding education. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a professional one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education intervention on the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding.
A total of 469 primiparous women who attended the antenatal clinics of two geographically distributed public hospitals in Hong Kong were randomized to receive either standard antenatal care or a one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education session. The primary outcome was the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at 3 and 6 months postpartum, as well as the overall duration of any and exclusive breastfeeding across the first 6 months postpartum. The study had a least 80% power to detect a 50% increase in the rate of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum.
The exclusive breastfeeding rate in the intervention group was 37.8% at 6 weeks postpartum compared with 36.4% in the standard care group (p=0.77; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) -0.08, 0.11). There were no significant differences between the two treatment groups in exclusive breastfeeding rates at 3 and 6 months or in in the overall duration of any (Hazard Ratio (HR) =1.11; 95% CI 0.88, 1.40) or exclusive breastfeeding (HR=0.96; 95% CI 0.79, 1.17). In a setting with a high breastfeeding initiation rate, one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education did not increase the exclusivity or duration of breastfeeding. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/208010
Date January 2014
CreatorsWong Cheung, Ka-lun, 黃張嘉倫
ContributorsFong, DYT, Tarrant, AM
PublisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
Source SetsHong Kong University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypePG_Thesis
RightsThe author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License
RelationHKU Theses Online (HKUTO)

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