Choosing Feeding: Enhancing breastfeeding education for teen mothers

Background/significance, Teen mothers have the lowest rates of breastfeeding of any group in the US. With funding from CDC we developed and evaluated an educational program for teen mothers based on informed decision-making theory and integrated the values and experiences of teen mothers. Objective/purpose This paper describes our educational curriculum and the results of data collected from teen mothers in two comparison cohorts of teen mothers participating in the January and September 2009 childbirth classes at the Greensboro YWCA. Methods We developed our curriculum with input from teen; it integrated “story telling” to engage the teens in discussions to enhance decision-making abilities and breastfeeding-related knowledge and skills. To evaluate the program we compared a cohort of adolescents exposed to the intervention with a cohort who were not exposed. We collected breastfeeding intentions from all 17 in the Jan cohort. Six participated in the prospective study; we conducted baseline and follow-up qualitative in-person interviews with these and tracked their infant feeding. In September we collected quantitative data on teen mother's attitudes, knowledge and breastfeeding intention using a questionnaire developed for this study (N=12). Results Our data indicate that knowledge and beliefs that are supportive of breastfeeding and the “intention to give breastfeeding a try” do not translate into actual breastfeeding beyond a couple of weeks postpartum. Even though teens may believe they have good information, they are unprepared for the realities of breastfeeding. Discussion/conclusions. This paper will conclude with implications educational programming and practice with teen mothers around breastfeeding