Effectiveness of Breast Massage on Amount of Milk Production in Mothers who are not Actively Breast Feeding Preterm Babies

Abstract

ontext: Breastfeeding to premature baby is often challenging for the postnatal mothers. In case of preterm labour milk synthesis is poor due to insufficient sucking reflex and poor mother baby bonding, if baby is admitted in neonatal unit. Breast massage is a technique to improve milk production in lactating mothers. Aims: To assess the effectiveness of breast massage on amount of milk production in mothers who are not actively breast feeding preterm babies. Settings and Design: Setting was postnatal ward Queen Mary Hospital, Lucknow. Research design was quasiexperimental (time series one group pre test post test). Methods and Material: Data were collected with the help of demographic profile and assessment of breast milk tool from 26 samples using purposive sampling technique who met the inclusion criteria. The pretest data collected before intervention and post test data collected after each intervention consecutively for 3 days. Statistical Analysis used: Mean, mean difference, standard deviation, t-test and chi-square. Results: The result revealed that on day 1, the post intervention milk production was found to be more (12.34±3.83) than pre intervention (3.03±1.98), t =16.68. On day 2, the post intervention milk production was found to be more (60.61±20.52), than pre intervention (17.07±6.73), t= 15.62 . On day 3, the pre intervention milk production was 25.15±7.13, which increased to 81.92±21.10 after intervention, t=20.16 at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusions: The findings of the study conclude that breast massage was found to be effective in increasing the amount of milk production among mothers who are not actively breast feeding preterm babies.