Motivational interviewing to promote sustained breastfeeding

OBJECTIVE: To explore the feasibility of using motivational interviewing to promote sustained breastfeeding by increasing a mother's intent to breastfeed for 6 months and increasing her breastfeeding self-efficacy. DESIGN: A longitudinal experimental two-group design with repeated measures was selected to explore the feasibility of using motivational interviewing to promote sustained breastfeeding in primiparous mothers. SETTING: Three Western rural community hospital sites. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 73 primiparous breastfeeding mothers ranging between the ages of 19 and 38, M = 25 (SD = 4.5). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Mothers reported the date of their last day of breastfeeding, defined as any breastfeeding during the previous 24-hour period. Breastfeeding behavior was confirmed at each visit by infant test weights. RESULTS: The motivational interviewing group (M = 98.1 days, SD = 75.2) breastfed longer than the comparison group (M= 80.7 days, SD = 71.9); however, this difference was not significant, t(69) = 0.991, p = .325, Cohen's d = 0.24, related to the variability in the sample. CONCLUSIONS: Although not a statistically significant difference, the mean number of days that mothers in the intervention group breastfed was 98 days compared to the mean of 81 days by the comparison group; therefore, motivational interviewing may be useful as a strategy to test in a comprehensive intervention plan.