Breastfeeding Support for Minority Women Postdischarge: A Pilot Program.

Objective: Human milk is the preferred source of nutrition for infants in their first 6 months of life. A majority of American women will initiate breastfeeding, but many will not continue due to the many challenges that arise, creating a significant gap between initiation and the long-term exclusivity rate. This quality improvement project aimed to increase postpartum lactation support encounters, fostering the mother's knowledge and self-efficacy, which are known predictors for breastfeeding success. Methods: Program participants received proactive lactation support via telephone every 24–72 hours throughout the first 2 weeks postpartum. Breastfeeding knowledge, self-efficacy, and exclusivity pre- and postprogram were assessed. Results: All outreach attempts to participants were made as planned. Eight out of 20 enrolled participants completed the program and maintained breastfeeding exclusivity at 2 weeks. Breastfeeding knowledge scores were significantly higher at the completion of program compared with preprogram scores. Pre- and postprogram breastfeeding self-efficacy scores were not statistically significantly different; however, the mean was high for all participants, exceeding 65 both pre- and post-program. Conclusions: Transferrable knowledge from this quality improvement project will support sustainable improvement of lactation support across other institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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