Impact of Peer Education on Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy in Primiparous Women

Peers are influential people who can enhance self-efficacy (SE) factors by verbal encouragement and common experience sharing and affect maternal SE in promoting and maintaining breastfeeding (BF). This study aimed to determine the effect of peer education on BF SE among primiparous mothers.

This randomized clinical trial study was conducted on nulliparous mothers with hospitalized neonates in the neonatal ward of Amirkola Children's Hospital, Mazandaran Province, Iran, within May-September 2018. The statistical population of this research (n=120) was selected using the convenience method and randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control (n=60 each). The control group received the usual and standard center's education. However, the mothers in the intervention group received, two one-hour sessions of BF education from peers in addition to the usual training. These peers were qualified and experienced in two years of successful BF. The tools used for data collection were the demographic form and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy (BE SE) Scale. The BE SE questionnaire was completed at the time of enrollment and the eighth week after primiparous delivery. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version18) using an independent t-test and paired t-test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

The two groups were similar in demographic variables. The mean score of BF SE after the education in the control and intervention groups were obtained as 48.38±7.85 and 60.25±8.32, respectively, which was significant (P<0. 001).

Based on the results, breastfeeding through peer education increased SE in primiparous women. Therefore, it is recommended to adopt it as an appropriate educational method to improve the quality of BF education among mothers with newborns hospitalized in the neonatal ward.