Effect of Foot Reflexology on Milk Production in Mothers with Premature Infants

Aims: Premature infants need breastfeeding milk in infancy in order to achieve optimal growth more than ever and not having enough milk in breast feeding, is a common problem for women who have premature infants. Reflexology massage is one of the proposed treatments to help with this issue. The current study is aimed to determine the effect of reflexology on milk production in mothers with premature infants.
In this randomized clinical trial, 30 mothers with premature infants admitted to Shohada Hospital in Quchan city, in 2016, were selected through convenient sampling and randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received foot reflexology massage for 3 consecutive days for 20 minutes and the control group received routine care only. The volume of milk was measured before and 30 minutes after massage on the first and third day of the study. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22 using Chi-square, independent t-test and repeated measures analysis of variance.
Findings: There was no significant difference in the mean volume of milk on the first day after reflex massage between the intervention group and the control group (p=0.79), but on the third day, there was a significant difference in the mean volume of milk after reflex massage between the intervention group and the control group (p=0.02). The difference in mean volume of milk on the third day, after intervention compared to before intervention was not significant (p=0.187).
Reflexology massage is not effective on milk production in mothers with premature infants.