Education and Support: Tilting the Scale Toward Exclusive Breastfeeding

The Hispanic population in the United States is growing, and healthcare providers are challenged to design targeted, culturally appropriate programs to improve health outcomes related to breastfeeding. Objectives: This study was designed to detect the exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate among Hispanic women who chose education plus peer support versus peer support only. In addition, this study further evaluates !Tengo Leche!, an educational program previously evaluated in the literature. Methods: The sample (n = 103) consisted of Hispanic pregnant, low-income, and uninsured women. A two-group quasi-experimental design was used to test the educational intervention combined with peer support (n = 35) versus stand-alone peer support (n = 68). The education-plus group (n = 35) voluntarily participated in the education portion. All participants received the inpatient peer counseling. The participants' breastfeeding intention was gathered through chart review. Results: EBF at discharge was significantly higher (c2 = 4.51, p = .02) among mothers in the education plus peer support group, who were more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding at discharge (46.7%) versus the peer-support-only group (24.6%). Conclusions: The outcomes of this study may provide guidance for designing culturally competent interventions with a focus on cost-effective and outcome-driven interventions to increase EBF.