Social support during childbirth as a catalyst for early breastfeeding initiation for first-time Nigerian mothers

doi:10.1186/1746-4358-4-16

International Breastfeeding Journal

Volume 4

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Ojengbede OA

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confounding of pre-birth and post-birth
Re: confounding of pre-birth and post-birth: Authors' reply

confounding of pre-birth and post-birth

G Becker (12 December 2009) BEST Services

Thank you for an interesting article. I wonder if the companion during labour and birth resulted in a shorter labour, baby in a better state, and the mother generally feeling more competent and this facilitated early initiation of breastfeeding? Or if the companion post-birth encouraged mother etc. Did you have any women in your study who only had a companion post-birth (not during labour)? Or during labour but not post-birth? And the effect on breastfeeding initiation when companion was only there for one aspect.

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Re: confounding of pre-birth and post-birth: Authors' reply

Imran Morhason-Bello (03 January 2010) Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

As mentioned in the method section of this paper, primigravid mothers’ data were separately analysed to see the interval of breastfeeding initiation time [1]. Details of the obstetric outcomes such as labour duration, satisfaction and others have been published elsewhere [2]. Presence of companion is associated with better labour outcomes. All the companions were present from onset of established labour till 2 hours after delivery as per our protocol. It is possible from your comment that duration of companion’s stay could influence the outcome of breastfeeding initiation but, we do not have subset of companions that were either solely present pre-birth or post-birth as suggested.

We also feel that the better obstetric outcomes as well as childbirth satisfaction are intermediate variables in the effect of social support on breastfeeding initiation and not confounders per se [3]. Social support will affect these birth outcomes which may then influence initiation of breastfeeding. Hence, we did not include them in multivariable model analysis.

Thank you.

References
1. Morhason-Bello, IO, Adedokun BO, Ojengbede OA Social support during childbirth as a catalyst for early breastfeeding initiation for first time Nigerian mothers. International Breastfeeding Journal 2009, 4:16 doi:10.1186/1746-4358-4-16
2. Morhason-Bello, I.O., Adedokun B.O., Ojengbede A. O., Olayemi O., Oladokun A: Fabamwo A. O. Assessment of the effect of psycho-social support during childbirth in Ibadan, South-West Nigeria: a randomised controlled trial. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 2009, 49(2): 145 - 50.
3. Rothman KJ & Greenland S. Modern Epidemiology 2nd ed. Pg 123-125. 1998 Lippincott Raven, Philladelphia

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We declare that there is no competing interest

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