Effectiveness of Breast Crawl on Initiation of Breastfeeding among Newborn and Mother’s Self Satisfaction in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Kochi

Abstract

Introduction: Breast milk is a divine gift for a baby and breast feeding is the nature’s best way to nurture the newborn. Immediately after the delivery breast feeding encourages the bonding of the mother to her baby. The International Organizations like WHO, UNICEF and WABA recommend that breast feeding should be initiated in the first hour of birth. One of the methods for early initiation of breast feeding was breast crawl. Breast crawl is the natural instinctive behaviour of the newborn and everything in breast crawl is perfectly designed by nature. The present study intends to evaluate the effectiveness of breast crawl technique on initiation of breast feeding among newborns and mothers self-satisfaction in a tertiary care hospital, Kochi. Objectives: The study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of breast crawl on initiation of breast feeding among newborns, compare the time of initiation of breast feeding among newborns in two groups and assess the self-satisfaction of mothers in experimental group. Materials and Methods: A quasi experimental study, with Post-Test only Control group design and quantitative approach conducted in labour room of AIMS, Kochi among 60 full term newborns and born through normal vaginal delivery and selected by using non-probability purposive sampling technique. Among the 60 newborns, 30 were allocated to both experimental and control group. The breast crawl technique proposed by UNICEF IN 2018 was performed to experimental group and assessed the initiation of breast feeding by LATCH breast feeding assessment tool. Routine hospital care and health education regarding importance of breast feeding was given to the control group. Results: The mean LATCH breast feeding score was 8.87±0.681 in experimental group and 6.50±0.861 in control group which was found to be significant at p˂0.001. About the time duration for initiation of breastfeeding among the two groups, the mean score was 34.57±5.5 in experimental group and 75.23±4.6 minutes in control group which was found to be significant with p˂0.001. Among the mothers in the experimental group, 57% were highly satisfied, 43% were moderately satisfied and none of the mothers had less satisfaction. Conclusion: Breast crawl technique was found to be effective in breast feeding initiation among the newborn and increased maternal satisfaction among experimental group and expressed that breast crawl was totally a new experience and will suggest it to others. Clinical Significance: Based on the study findings, breast crawl technique can be implemented and practiced in clinical settings for initiation of breast feeding among newborns.