A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Lactation Counselling and Breast Milk Stimulation Technique on Level of Breastmilk Secretion among Normal Postnatal Mothers in Selected Hospitals at Kanyakumari District

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of lactation counselling and breast milk stimulation technique on the level of breast milk secretion among normal postnatal mothers. The study was conducted in ML Hospital, Punnai Nagar, Nagercoil. Probability sampling technique was adopted for this study. Samples were selected on the basis of inclusion criteria. Sixty samples were enrolled in this study, and 30 samples were assigned to the experimental group who were admitted to the inpatient department. A self-structured breast milk adequacy checklist was used to assess the level of breast milk secretion among normal postnatal mothers. The research design was a true experimental research design. In the pretest, among 30 normal postnatal mothers, 18 (60%) had a moderate level of breast milk secretion, 12 (40%) had inadequate breast milk secretion, and none of them had an adequate level of breast milk secretion. In the posttest, 21 (70%) had an adequate level of breast milk secretion, 9 (30%) had a moderate level of breast milk secretion, and none of them had inadequate breast milk secretion. The mean score for breast milk secretion among normal postnatal mothers in the experimental group was 3.90 in the pretest and 6.73 in the posttest. The paired “t” value for the level of breast milk secretion was 15.75***, which was significant at p≤0.05 and highly significant at p≤0.01 and p≤0.001. The findings showed that lactation counselling and breast milk stimulation techniques were effective in increasing the level of breast milk secretion among normal postnatal mothers. In the control group, the mean score for breast milk secretion was 3.79 in the pretest and 3.76 in the posttest. The estimated paired “t” value for the level of breast milk secretion was 1.44, which was not significant at p≤0.05, p≤0.01, and p≤0.001. Comparing both values, it shows that lactation counselling and breast milk stimulation techniques were effective in increasing the level of breast milk secretion among normal postnatal mothers.