Mother’s knowledge, latch score and satisfaction after development of the breastfeeding support service in HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center

Abstract

The purpose of this participatory action research was to develop a guideline of the breast feeding support service to the mothers and their families at antenatal clinic and postpartum care of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center at Nakhon Nayok province. The study was divided into three phases. The first and third phases consisted of 8 mothers who were particularly chosen and indepth interviewed according to the guidelines. The results revealed that the breastfeeding support service were breastfeeding knowledge teaching, building in breastfeeding value, and assessment of breast and nipple problems in order to help mothers to resolve the problems at the antenatal care clinic. There were bonding and early sucking at the labor room. Rooming of mother and her infant, breast and nipple assessment, tongue-tie assessment and giving knowledge for mothers and families to help breastfeeding were performed at the postpartum ward. Six times a follow-up was done according to the ages of an infant: 7 days, 14 days, 45 days, 2 months, 4 months and 6 months, by phone and follow up at the breastfeeding clinic on the same day as the vaccination date of the infant and post partum examination in mother. For the second phase, the subjects were 20 patients and their families who were randomly chosen. The questionnaires used for data collecting were demographic data of patients and families, breastfeeding knowledge, breastfeeding efficacy, and satisfaction. The percentages, means, standard deviations and dependent t-test were used for data analysis. The result revealed that the mean score of mother’s breastfeeding knowledge was 9.2 of 11 and their scores were at least 80% which accounted for 70%. The mean of Latch score of after-breastfeeding support was significantly more than that of before-breastfeeding support (t=9.20, p < 0.01). The percentage of maternal satisfaction was 97.5. Therefore, breastfeeding support service should be practiced constantly to promote the breastfeeding in mothers and the families for more than the period of six months.