Effectiveness of breastfeeding education compared to standard hospital information on exclusive breastfeeding among mothers: A systematic review

Breastfeeding is the single intervention with the largest impact on the health of a new-born baby. Evidence has to be generated to convince the mother as well as policy-makers for the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for 6 months. This study aimed to assess the evidence for the effectiveness of breastfeeding education compared with standard hospital information among mothers on the rate of EBF. The study design is systematic review. Trials which are randomized or cluster randomized which studied the effect of educational interventions for mothers on EBF were searched for. Two databases were searched, namely PubMed and Cochrane. Manual search of reference lists of all included studies in Google scholar and Clinical Trial Registry was done. Two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the included studies. Data were extracted using a table format set by the reviewers referring the previously reported high-quality systematic reviews. Out of the 12 comparisons of nine studies included for review, eight studies report that breastfeeding education has added advantage on increasing the rate of EBF. We conclude that there is evidence to support breastfeeding education versus standard hospital information across diverse settings.