Providing breastfeeding support through breastfeeding clubs and cell phones to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates among adolescent mothers
Honduras
Project summary
A randomized controlled trial will be conducted in and around San Pedro Sula, Honduras to determine if exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months postpartum among adolescent mothers can be improved by providing breastfeeding education and support through bimonthly breastfeeding club meetings, cell phone text messages, and phone calls. Breastfeeding club meetings will take place at health or community centers and will be conducted by trained female community health promoters. These trained promoters will also send out the breastfeeding promotion text messages and provide follow-up phone calls to mothers who are experiencing breastfeeding difficulties. In the first 2 weeks postpartum, mothers will receive two text messages a day, after which they will receive 2 text messages a week for the remainder of the study.
Collaborating institutions
Samaritan’s Purse International Relief (Honduras) will oversee the entire project.
Leonardo Martinez Hospital (Honduras) will provide access to hospital staff for training and will enroll adolescent mothers in the study.
Honduran Chapter of La League League (Honduras) will train the hospital staff in lactation management and community health promoters in breastfeeding promotion and counseling and assist with the design of educational toolkits and SMS messages.
National University of Honduras (Honduras) will develop the protocol and instruments for the formative research assessment, collect and analyze the formative research data, and assist with the final project evaluation.
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (USA) will develop the protocol and instruments for the formative research assessment, analyze the formative research data, and assist with the final project evaluation.
Principal investigator
Lul Janania de Perdomo, M.D., Regional Coordinator for HIV and AIDS Programs in Latin America