Introduction: Despite the proven risks associated with not breastfeeding, few mothers\nexclusively breastfeed their babies for six months as recommended by the World Health\nOrganization. This study was conducted to compare the effect of breastfeeding\npromotion interventions on exclusive BMF among primiparous women. Methods: This\nquasi-experimental study was conducted on a sample of 93 primiparous women who\nwere referred to health care centres, Mashhad, Iran, in 2010. Health care centres were\nselected by multistage sampling method, and then randomly allocated into two\nintervention groups (peer support group and health care provider�s education group)\nand one control group. Primigravidae aged 18-35 years old, with singleton pregnancy,\nwith gestational age of 35-36 weeks, and intending to breastfeed their children were\nrandomly selected out of health care centres. The peer support group participants\nreceived supports from their peers four times and education group�s participants\nreceived 4 training sessions by health care providers. The control group received only\nroutine cares. Exclusive BMF duration and rate assessed at 4 and 8 weeks postpartum\nand collected data were analysed using SPSS (ver.11.5) software. Results: There were no significant differences in exclusive BMF duration at 4 and 8\nweeks among the 3 groups (P=0.993, P=0.904). Exclusive BMF rate at 4 and 8 weeks\nafter birth was significantly different among the 3 groups (P=0.043, P=0.023). No\nsignificant difference was found between peer support and healthcare provider�s\neducation groups with respect to BMF rate at 4 weeks (P=0.111), but the difference was\nsignificant at 8 weeks (P=0.027). Conclusion: All women should be offered education\nand peer support to breastfeed their babies to increase the exclusive breastfeeding rate.\nBut to continue exclusive breastfeeding, and increase its duration, help of family is more\nimportant than education and peer support. Support that is only offered reactively, in\nwhich women are expected to initiate the contact, is unlikely to be effective; women\nshould be offered ongoing support so they can predict that support will be available.\nSupport should be tailored to the needs of the setting and the population group.
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