Review Of Literature/Synthesis: Effects Of Early Lactation Education On Breastfeeding Rates And Longevity In Women Of Child-Bearing Age
Breastfeeding refers to feeding infants with milk from their mother’s breast. Many recommendations say that an infant should start breastfeeding within the first hour after being delivered and progress to as much as the baby wants. World Health Organization among others, endorse that the shortest term to breastfeed is at least six months. During the earliest weeks after birth, the babies will breastfeed every two to three hours with duration of close to fifteen minutes on a single breast. More grown up children will breastfeed less frequently. Breastfeeding is vital for both the mother and infant. Among the benefits of breastfeeding; lower risks of pneumonia, asthma, food allergies, improved cognitive development, and reduced obesity in adulthood among others in children. Benefits associated with the mothers include better uterus shrinking and less blood flow after delivery. Long term benefits include reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore there is need of educational interventions to play a role in growing the practice of breastfeeding. The clinical question in PICOT format is: In women of child bearing age, what is the effect of early lactation education on breastfeeding rates and longevity compared with no prior lactation education?
Search discussion
In conducting of the research, two databases came in handy and were mainly used in for this purpose. This includes CINAHL and PubMed. CINAHL is a good data base since it provides access to full-text journals that are relevant to my search and also from qualified sources. PubMed is the largest database, larger than CINAHL and hence found it ideal because it has a huge capacity in hosting articles that seemed relevant to my research study. PubMed dates back in time and collects wide-reaching literature of the health sciences, while on the other hand CINHAL concentrates more on nursing and all the associated disciplines. Combination of the two databases made this research concrete and well detailed.
During the research process the keywords were used both as a single words and a combination of keywords. For instance Searching in the database using the single keyword “breastfeeding” generated thousands of results that were related to our topic but then making it a difficult task identifying the most relevant as per our research study. By use of combined keywords like “breastfeeding and its effects” and “breastfeeding and educational interventions” and “breastfeeding and infants” and “breastfeeding and delivery” and “breastfeeding and health effects” the returned results were more specific, filtered and relevant to this study. However some multiple keywords appeared to give accurate findings compared to the others in during this process. By means of this search strategy I was able to identify the most relevant sources relating with this study. The selection target aimed for primary sources that were published within the last five years or less. This would enable finding results from recently conducted studies making the research more pertinent.
Of all the sources at least two of them had to have a registered nurse as an author this would prove the study to have been done more professionally with individuals with adequate specialization. They were to be peer-reviewed journals which makes is possible finding precise results since they have been revised by other professionals in the same field. The study was to be based on a few chosen countries including U. S, UK, Netherlands, Canada and other few. As much as this criterion gave us very vital sources on one side on the other hand it made it problematic finding adequate results on some instances where an articles from other countries were used aiming at broadening the results. Synthesis of findingsThe research proved that there is need for intervention of breastfeeding for infants. Out of the seven sources used in this research four of these sources used questionnaires as their main data collection method while others employed telephone interviews and follow ups. The population size in this study did not cover a very wide range that may come in as a limitation though it had less effect with the accuracy of the results. These results indicated that educational and various interventions tools like counseling be encouraged since they had a big impact on longevity and intensity on breastfeeding.
Conclusion
From the knowledge I have gained from the study, I conclude that breastfeeding plays an important role both to the mother and infant and its health effects are evident. Therefore it is important on educating the child-bearing woman on the importance of ensuring that their babies have enough breast milk throughout this childhood cycle. As a professional nurse in the health industry, I am obliged in ensuring that women are educated on the importance of administering the breastfeeding exercise to their children. I would recommend that in future research, that a larger number of participants take part in such a research and also the study be conducted in a variety of countries to get wider findings. This knowledge is ideal for both a home and health care environmental background since it is all aiming at healthier motherhood and childhood through breastfeeding.
