Proactive telephone support provided to breastfeeding mothers of preterm infants after discharge: a randomised controlled trial

AIM: The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of proactive telephone support provided to breastfeeding mothers of preterm infants after discharge from neonatal intensive care units (NICU). METHODS: Between March 2013 and December 2015, a randomised controlled trial was conducted at six NICUs across Sweden. At each NICU, a breastfeeding support team recruited, randomised and delivered the support to participating mothers. The intervention group received a daily proactive telephone call up to 14 days after discharge from the support team. The control group could initiate telephone contact themselves. Primary outcome was exclusive breastfeeding eight weeks after discharge. Secondary outcomes were maternal satisfaction with breastfeeding, attachment, quality of life and parental stress. RESULTS: In total, 493 mothers were randomised, 231 to intervention group and 262 to control group. There were no differences between the groups for exclusive breastfeeding, odds ratio 0.96, 95% CI 0.66–1.38, nor for maternal satisfaction with breastfeeding, attachment or quality of life. The intervention group reported significantly less parental stress than the controls, t = 2.44, 95% CI 0.03–0.23, effect size d = 0.26. CONCLUSION: In this trial, proactive telephone support was not associated with increased exclusive breastfeeding prevalence eight weeks following discharge. However, intervention group mothers showed significantly lower parental stress.