Measuring the Effectiveness of Breastfeeding Education at a Federally Qualified Health Center

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this quality improvement initiative was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new prenatal breastfeeding curriculum designed to promote exclusive breastfeeding rates in underserved childbearing people receiving public assistance. This was accomplished by using the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Short Form (BSES-SF), a 14-item Likert style survey tool that measures confidence in breastfeeding. Methods: The BSES-SF was administered to individuals immediately before and after prenatal breastfeeding education in the late second and early third trimester of pregnancy. Over the course of 3 months, 14 clients ages 18 to 34, presented for group prenatal care and all were invited to participate in this quality improvement study. All 14 agreed to participate and completed pre- and post-intervention BSES surveys and demographic data. Sociodemographic characteristics of participants included 57.1% percent identifying as African American race and 35.7% as Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity. Results: Among prenatal patients receiving group breastfeeding education, the median Breastfeeding Self Efficacy Score increased from 49 (IQR 42, 53) to 54 (IQR 48, 57). Although the improvement was small, the post intervention score met a cutoff that is predictive of exclusive breastfeeding at 1 month postpartum (Brandao et al., 2022). Implications for Practice: This quality improvement study provided the data needed to evaluate a prenatal breastfeeding curriculum. The intervention was adopted based on the outcomes of this project. The findings support the increased utilization of prenatal breastfeeding education to improve health care disparities, particularly for people receiving public assistance at FQHCs.