Assignment to a hospital-based breastfeeding clinic and exclusive breastfeeding among immigrant Hispanic mothers: a randomized, controlled trial. J Hum Lact

A randomized controlled trial is used to determine whether assigning mixed feeders to a breastfeeding clinic within 1 week postpartum will increase exclusive breastfeeding at 1 month among Hispanic immigrants. Subjects are eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and 85 % are monolingual Hispanic. Mothers (n = 522) of infants at low risk for hyperbilirubinemia are approached at bedside 20 to 48 hours after delivery and randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Intent-to-treat analysis of feeding behavior at 4 weeks postpartum indicates that the intervention group is more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding (16.4 % vs 10 % in the control group, P =.03; adjusted odds ratio 1.87; 95 % confidence interval, 1.07-3.26); that the incidence of formula supplementation does not differ between groups; and that the inter-vention group is less likely to supplement with water and tea (P <.002). J Hum Lact. 25(3):287-296