The Effects of Education on Breastfeeding and Basic Maternal-neonatal Care and Mobile Messaging on Breastfeeding and Motherhood Experience: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Design This study was designed as a prospective randomized controlled study to determine the effectiveness of education on breastfeeding and basic maternal-neonatal care applied to primiparous women in the postpartum period and mobile messages on breastfeeding and motherhood experience.

Sample Inclusion criteria for this study were: (1) Primiparous; (2) aged ≥18 years; (3) having a healthy newborn; (4) participants who did not have an obstacle to postpartum breastfeeding and agreed to participate in the study were included in the study by simple random sampling method.

The study sample consisted of women hospitalized in the postpartum service of a hospital located in a province in eastern Turkey. In the postpartum service of the hospital, women who gave birth by vaginal or cesarean section are hospitalized. Early discharge procedures are performed after 24 hours for women who have had a vaginal delivery, and 48 hours for women who have had a cesarean delivery. Breastfeeding education is routinely provided in the hospital's postpartum service; however, the continuity and effectiveness of breastfeeding are not followed, and there is no information on neonatal care such as baby bathing, vaccination time, and training on emergencies that require a doctor's consultation.

Power analysis was performed using a web-based software to calculate the sample size for the research. The sample size was calculated as 65 for each group (65 participants in the experimental group and 65 participants in the control group) with a 5% error level, bidirectional significance level, 95% confidence interval, 80% ability to represent the population (power), and assuming that the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy score which is 48.2 (standard deviation 7.7) will increase by 4 points.

Measures A questionnaire was created to determine the introductory characteristics of women and newborns and the breastfeeding process of women, and the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES), IOWA-Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS), and Being a Mother Scale (BaM-13) were used to collect the data.