Group versus individual professional antenatal breastfeeding education for extending breastfeeding duration and exclusivity

Abstract

Although breastfeeding initiation rates have increased substantially in many developed countries over the past several decades, breastfeeding duration and exclusivity remain suboptimal. In the antenatal period, both group and individual education interventions have been implemented to improve breastfeeding. The purpose of this review was to compare the effectiveness of group and individual antenatal professional education on breastfeeding exclusivity and duration. A systematic search of the literature was conducted using Medline (1946-June 2014), PubMed (1883-June 2014), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (1947-June 2014), EMBASE (1947-June 2014), British Nursing Index (1994-June 2014), Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Library. Included studies were limited to health care professional-conducted education delivered to pregnant women only. Only studies reporting breastfeeding duration or exclusivity were included. Nineteen studies were included, of which 13 evaluated antenatal group education, 5 evaluated individual antenatal education, and 1 evaluated both a group and an individual antenatal education. When compared with standard care, 4 out of 12 studies supported the effectiveness of antenatal group education on breastfeeding duration or exclusivity, whereas 4 out of 6 studies supported the effectiveness of antenatal individual education. Two studies compared antenatal group education with peer-led education and neither study showed a significant difference in breastfeeding outcomes. The methodological heterogeneity and the small number of high quality studies limited our ability to draw firm conclusions about the effectiveness of either mode of antenatal education.