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Evaluation of a Community Health Nurse/Peer Counselor Program to Help Low-Income Women Breastfeed Longer

NCT00608088 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE3 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 328

Last updated 2008-02-06

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This research was done to better understand how new mothers who are breastfeeding feel and the questions they have. We wanted to use ways to help new mothers to breastfeed successfully. We compared a new approach (home visits and telephone calls) to the usual care given at Johns Hopkins Hospital with strong support to new mothers from nurses, and a peer counselor (another mother with breastfeeding experience).

Conditions

  • Breastfeeding Rates

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Usual Care

The usual care group will received standard care from the Johns Hopkins Hospital lactation consultant and nurses, which may have included a visit in the hospital by the lactation consultant if mothers delivered Monday through Friday. The lactation consultant was also available by request. A "warm-line" was also standard. This was a telephone line that was connected to an answering machine; the lactation consultant checked this line once daily (Monday through Friday) and returned calls.

BEHAVIORAL

Community Health Nurse/Peer Councelor Team

Visits by a community health nurse/peer counselor team during the first six postpartum months. Based on prior research and experience, the team was developed to provide culturally relevant support and health-care education to low-income mothers, who were a high percentage of African American women. The goals of this team were to 1) increase the duration of breastfeeding while emphasizing ways to decrease fatigue, and decrease breast discomfort; 2) strengthen maternal competence with breastfeeding and commitment to breastfeeding; 3) provide parent education about the infant regarding breastfeeding; 4) provide/find social support needed for continued breastfeeding; and 5) foster linkages to community services that will facilitate the maintenance of breastfeeding. The specific activities of the CHN/peer counselor team included hospital visitation after enrollment, home visiting during the first postpartum month, and telephone support throughout the first six postpartum months.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

    lead NIH

Principal Investigators

  • Linda C Pugh, PhD, RNC, FAAN · Johns Hopkins University; York College of Pennsylvania

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
12 Years
Max Age
44 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2003-03-31
Primary Completion
2006-08-31
Completion
2006-08-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00608088 on ClinicalTrials.gov