Breastfeeding Promotion in Lebanon Through a Salutogenic Intervention

Overview

The study is a randomized control trial to assess the effect of a salutogenic intervention on breastfeeding initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding in Lebanon. In this Salutogenic intervention, infant feeding helpers will provide subjects of the intervention group breastfeeding related information , and will support these subjects by counseling and guiding them to find general resistance resources. This aims to increase sense of coherence and its parameters: comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, which are the base of salutogenesis.

Pregnant women were recruited in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy and were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group. Both groups received standard breastfeeding education at the maternity ward. Additionally, the intervention is based on informative and supportive videos and a whatsapp group for interpersonal support. Videos and whatsapp groups were created and moderated by Infant Feeding Helpers. These are women from the same socio-economical background as the subjects, and have previous history of breastfeeding a minimum of 6 months exclusive breastfeeding. The aim of the intervention was to increase initiation and duration of breastfeeding by increasing comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness of the breastfeeding period and therefore by enhancing their sense of coherence. Chi-squared tests were used for descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon test was used for pre- post results of SOC and (SE) within each group. The change in pre-post SOC, SOC parameters and SE scores between control and intervention groups was analyzed with Quade non parametric.