Different Amount of Prolactin Hormone Before and After Acupressure-aromatherapy Combination Technique in Lactation: Epidemiological-clinic Study on Post Partum Mother in Surakarta District Hospital

Inadequate milk production is the most common reason why mothers do not breastfeed exclusively. To overcome this problem, a stimulus could be provided in the form of breast massage, acupressure and aromatherapy massage techniques. This study is aimed to demonstrate the difference of effectiveness of combination therapy with acupressure therapy and aromatherapy in increasing levels of the prolactin hormone. The study was a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design. Samples were taken using consecutive sampling of 40 first day postpartum primiparous mother. The data analyzed using paired t-test and ANOVA. Accupressure increased prolactin level by 75.85%, whilst aromatherapy was proven to increase the prolactin of the mothers by 180.94%. Combination of accupressure and aromatherapy was shown to be the most significant treatment in increasing prolactin by 302.88% compared to prolactin level of mothers in the control group which only increased by 1.53%. This study indicates, it is necessary to apply a combination of acupressure and aromatherapy techniques to increase the level of prolactin hormone in maternal post-partum lactation.