Professional Breastfeeding Support Intervention

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Breastfeeding

Treatments: Other: In-hospital professional support; Other: Postpartum telephone follow-up support

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01893736

PBFS-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators will conduct an early postpartum professional breastfeeding intervention to postpartum women who are intended to breastfeed newborn babies to improve breastfeeding outcomes.

Full description

The aim of this study is to determine whether early post-partum professional breastfeeding support improves breastfeeding outcomes.

The primary hypotheses are:

1. Exclusive breastfeeding rates at 1, 2, and 3 months will be increased among mother-infant pairs who receive professional lactation support or telephone follow-up support (intervention groups) when compared with those who receive usual post-natal breastfeeding support (control group);
2. The rate of any breastfeeding (predominant or partial) at 1, 2, and 3 months will be increased among mother-infant pairs in the intervention groups when compared with those in the control group;

The secondary hypotheses are:

1. The overall duration of exclusive breastfeeding will be increased among mother-infant pairs in the intervention groups when compared with those in the control group;
2. The overall duration of any breastfeeding (predominant or partial) will be increased among mother-infant pairs in the intervention groups when compared with those in the control group.

Enrollment: 722 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. delivers at participating trial site,
2. primiparous,
3. intends to breastfeed,
4. 18 years of age or older,
5. has singleton pregnancy,
6. Cantonese speaking,
7. Hong Kong resident for more than one year,
8. no serious medical or obstetrical complications

Exclusion criteria

1. < 37 weeks gestation,
2. an Apgar score < 8 at five minutes,
3. a birth weight < 2500 grams,
4. born with any severe medical conditions or congenital malformations,
5. is placed in the special care nursery for more than 48 hours after delivery,
6. is placed in the intensive care nursery after delivery,
7. not entitled to health benefits in Hong Kong (NEP).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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722 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

In-hospital usual care consists of routine intrapartum and postnatal obstetric care. No extra intervention will be provided by research team.

In-hospital professional support

Experimental group

Description:

The participants in "in-hospital professional support" arm will receive three 30-minute one-to-one hands-on breastfeeding counseling sessions during postpartum hospitalization.

Treatment:

Other: In-hospital professional support

Postpartum telephone follow-up support

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in "postpartum telephone follow-up support" arm will receive telephone support in the first 4 weeks postpartum.

Treatment:

Other: Postpartum telephone follow-up support