Effects of Nurse-Led Intervention for Mother–Infant Dyads on Breastfeeding, Infant Health Outcomes

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of nurse-led interventions in enhancing breastfeeding women’s knowledge and practices and in preventing diarrhea among their infants. Methods: The study was conducted in rural areas of Haryana, India, and used the survey design and pre-experimental research design in Phase I and Phase II, respectively. Mothers who had recently delivered a baby were identified using the birth register at the panchayat office, and 200 mothers who met the inclusion criteria were chosen using purposive sampling technique. The data were collected by interview approach using the knowledge questionnaire on breastfeeding, observational checklist on practice of breastfeeding, diarrhea assessment tool, and the duration of data collection was between May to August 2022. In Phase I, exclusive and non-exclusive breastfeeding mothers were surveyed regarding the occurrence of diarrhea among infants. In Phase II, non-exclusive breastfeeding mothers’ knowledge and practice were assessed, and then nurseled intervention on breastfeeding was administrated and on 30th, 60th, and 90th days, post-test was done. Results: The study’s findings demonstrate that the knowledge and practice scores varied significantly across different tests, from pre-test 1 (6.73 ± 1.94) to post-test 3 (16.19 ± 3.04), (F=294.11, p < .000) for knowledge, and for practice pre-test 1 (23.41 ± 8.90) to post-test 3 (101.81 ± 22.4), (F=535.98, p < .000) in the intervention group. Further, in the intervention group, there was decrease in diarrhea occurrence among various observations (Q=60.609, p < .000). Conclusion: The nurse-led intervention of breastfeeding is an effective teaching technique to improve the knowledge and practice of mothers, as well as it helps to reduce the occurrence of diarrhea among infants, there by it can contribute to reducing the infant mortality rate.