Professional and peer support

The promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding can be put into practice in many different ways. Breastfeeding support can be done both pre and post natally and be performed by professionals and peers. Researchers studied all varieties of breastfeeding support and even the studies were studied (reviews). The results differ widely. Ingham c.s. studied lay prenatal breastfeeding support. They found little effect from universal support programs (aimed at ‘’all’’ pregnant women of a certain socio-economic status), but measurable effects for target programs (aimed at pregnant women already decided to or considering to breastfeed).Chapman et al did not only consider breastfeeding initiation as an effect of peer counselling, but were interested to see any effects on infant health as well. In their review of the literature they found not only that peer counselling increased the incidence, exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding according to the vast majority of studies, but also a decrease in incidence of infant diarrhea and significantly increase the duration of lactational amenorrhea. A quite interesting study by Dennis, concluded that professional breastfeeding support may very well work out negatively when the professional’s advice is coloured by lack of breastfeeding knowledge and that even support by a knowledgeable professional only has a limited duration effect. Especially for those women who belong to the most vulnerable groups in regard to breastfeeding success (young, have a low income, belong to an ethnic minority, are unsupported, are employed full-time, decided to breastfeed during or late in pregnancy, have negative attitudes toward breastfeeding, and have low confidence in their ability to breastfeed) best chances to develop positive breastfeeding behaviour come from non-professional support.
Ingram L, MacArthur C, Khan K, Deeks JJ, Jolly K: Effect of antenatal peer support on breastfeeding initiation: a systematic review. CMAJ. 2010 Nov 9;182(16):1739-46.
Chapman DJ, Morel K, Anderson AK, Damio G, Pérez-Escamilla R: Breastfeeding peer counseling: from efficacy through scale-up. J Hum Lact. 2010 Aug;26(3):314-26.
Dennis CL: Breastfeeding initiation and duration: a 1990-2000 literature review. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 2002 Jan-Feb;31(1):12-32.