Effect of Initiation of Breastfeeding during Third Stage of Labour on Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice and Morbidity of Infants of Primimothers

This study was aimed at assessing the effect of initiation of breastfeeding during the third stage of labour on exclusive breastfeeding practice and morbidity of infants of primimothers in a selected hospital, Palakkad, with the objectives to (1) find out the effect of early initiation of breastfeeding on breastfeeding practice among primimothers; (2) assess the morbidity of infants of primimothers till 5½ months; (3) correlate the breastfeeding practice of primimothers with time of initiation of breastfeeding; and (4) associate breastfeeding practice of primimothers with their selected socio-demographic variables. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group post-test-only design was adopted. Using non-probability purposive sampling technique, 150 primimothers, 75 in each arm, were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Primimothers in the intervention group initiated breastfeeding during the third stage of labour, whereas control group mothers initiated breastfeeding according to the hospital policy. The mothers and their infants were followed up during 2½, 3½ and 5½ months for the breastfeeding practice followed and the morbidity of the infants. The mean time of initiation of breastfeeding among mothers in the control group was 37.85 minutes (SD = 7.14) and that of mothers in the intervention group was 7.43 minutes (SD = 2.38). Exclusive breastfeeding was practised more consistently from 2½ to 5½ months among the mothers of the intervention group. Spearman’s rank correlation indicates that as the time of initiation increased, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding decreased. The infants of mothers in control group had a high morbidity compared to those in intervention group. There was a significant association between breastfeeding practice with educational status of mother (p < 0.030) and type of family (p < 0.048).