title: Antenatal education to increase exclusive breastfeeding: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of a professional one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education intervention on the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 469 primiparous women who attended the antenatal clinics of two geographically distributed public hospitals in Hong Kong were randomized to receive either standard antenatal care or a one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education session. The primary outcome was the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at 3 and 6 months postpartum as well as the overall duration of any and exclusive breastfeeding across the first 6 months postpartum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The exclusive breastfeeding rate in the intervention group was 37.8% at 6 weeks postpartum compared with 36.4% in the standard care group (P=.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.08 to 0.11). There were no significant differences between the two treatment groups in exclusive breastfeeding rates at 3 and 6 months or in the overall duration of any (hazard ratio [HR] 1.11, 95% CI 0.88-1.40] or exclusive breastfeeding (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.79-1.17). The study had a least 80% power to detect a 50% increase in the rate of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In a setting with a high breastfeeding initiation rate, one-to-one antenatal breastfeeding support and education did not increase the exclusivity or duration of breastfeeding.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01648114.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, the University of Hong Kong, and Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, and Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Ka Lun
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Daniel Yee
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Tak Fong
authors.forename: Irene Lai
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Yin Lee
authors.forename: Sing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tarrant
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome