Effectiveness of weekly cell phone counselling calls and daily text messages to improve breastfeeding indicators

Every year, nearly one million deaths occur due to suboptimal breastfeeding. If universally practiced, exclusive breastfeeding alone prevents 11.6% of all under 5 deaths. Among strategies to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates, counselling by peers or health workers, has proven to be highly succes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC pediatrics 2018-10, Vol.18 (1), p.337-337, Article 337
Main Authors: Patel, Archana, Kuhite, Priyanka, Puranik, Amrita, Khan, Samreen Sadaf, Borkar, Jitesh, Dhande, Leena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Breast feeding
Breastfeeding & lactation
Breastfeeding counselling
Cell phone counselling
Cellular telephones
Counseling
Exclusive breastfeeding
Health care
Health counseling
Health surveys
Infant and young child feeding
Infant nutrition
Intervention
Lactation
Mortality
Newborn babies
Nutrition
Systematic review
Telemedicine
Text messaging
Wireless telephones
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Summary:Every year, nearly one million deaths occur due to suboptimal breastfeeding. If universally practiced, exclusive breastfeeding alone prevents 11.6% of all under 5 deaths. Among strategies to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates, counselling by peers or health workers, has proven to be highly successful. With growing availability of cell phones in India, they are fast becoming a medium to spread information for promoting healthcare among pregnant women and their families. This study was conducted to assess effectiveness of cell phones for personalized lactation consultation to improve breastfeeding practices. This was a two arm, pilot study in four urban maternity hospitals, retrained in Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. The enrolled mother-infant pairs resided in slums and received healthcare services at the study sites. The control received routine healthcare services, whereas, the intervention received weekly cell phone counselling and daily text messages, in addition to counselling the routine healthcare services. 1036 pregnant women were enrolled (518 - intervention and 518 - control). Rates of timely initiation of breastfeeding were significantly higher in intervention as compared to control (37% v/s 24%, p 
ISSN:1471-2431
1471-2431
DOI:10.1186/s12887-018-1308-3