Background Information
Medical professionals and pediatrics support breastfeeding since it is the best way to feed newborn babies. Breast milk provides essential nutrients during the first few months after birth. Mothers who breastfeed for longer will create stronger bonds with their babies (Burgio et al., 2016). However, breastfeeding can be tricky or hard task for many young women. Some mothers might be uncomfortable with it while others tend to be unavailable due to the nature of their careers. Those who lack adequate understanding about the benefits of breastfeeding will be disadvantaged (Albrecht, S. A., Wang, J., & Spatz, D. (2017). The current problem is that some mothers do not breastfeed for at least six months after birth. This challenge is capable of affecting their babies’ psychological, physical, and mental abilities.
This paper proposes that the decision to offer formal prenatal breastfeeding education to pregnant women can increase breastfeeding initiation and retainment for six months postpartum. The developed PICOT question using the identified problem will guide the research study and eventually present evidence-based insights for empowering more women and their newborn babies.
The absence of proper mechanisms to train and empower expectant women about the best breastfeeding practices and techniques affect the health outcomes of many babies. Such programs are known to equip pregnant women with evidence-based concepts and ideas for feeding, washing, and taking good care of their newborn babies. Similarly, the provision of proper prenatal education to pregnant women is an evidence-based practice that can empower them to breastfeed for more months and monitor the health statuses of their babies. I want to find out whether formal learning session like these increase the amounts of successful breastfed infants.
PICOT Question
PICOT: Do pregnant women who receive formal prenatal breastfeeding education compared to pregnant women who do not receive prenatal breastfeeding education record increased breastfeeding initiation and retainment rates for six months postpartum?
- P: Pregnant women;
- I: Formal prenatal breastfeeding education;
- C: No prenatal breastfeeding education;
- O: Breastfeeding initiation and retainment;
- T: Six months.
Search Strategy
The successful completion of the proposed study will depend on the selected sources of information. The identified databases for this research include EBSCOhost, PubMed, and ProQuest. These keywords will also be considered for this research: postpartum, prenatal, breastfeeding, prenatal breastfeeding education, and postnatal. Some of the projected limits to the search include the nature of targeted articles and the language used. This means that the selected documents should have been published within the past four years. They should also be presented or written in English language. From this analysis, it is agreeable that the search strategy is capable of addressing the above PICOT question and providing adequate ideas and information for completing the study.
References
Albrecht, S. A., Wang, J., & Spatz, D. (2017). A call to action to address barriers to breastfeeding and lactation faced by student-mothers. Nursing for Women’s Health, 21(6), 431-437. Web.
Burgio, M. A., Laganà, A. S., Sicilia, A., Porta, R. P., Porpora, M. G., Frangež, H.B., … Triolo, O. (2016). Breastfeeding education: Where are we going? A systematic review article. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 45(8), 970-977.
