[A micro-education programme for breastfeeding women: a pilot study to investigate the educations' effect on injured and painful nipples].

Injured and painful nipples are frequently occurring events in nursing women during the first days after giving birth. These problems often result in a premature termination of breastfeeding despite the mother's wish to nurse. Unsystematic instructions given to women regarding correct breastfeeding increase the risk that these complications will arise. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of a systematic micro-education programme for nursing women by means of a pilot study or a quasi-experiment. The study included 100 mother and child pairs each in the experimental group and in the control group (N = 200). The pain experienced by all women during nursing was measured using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the degree of injury to the nipples after nursing was measured with a tool specially developed for this purpose, the Nipple Wound Score (NWS). Women who received instructions by means of the micro-education programme exhibited significantly less injured nipples (on the third day: experimental group 55 % and control group 77 %, p < 0.00; on the fourth day: 56 % and 80 %, p < 0.00).No differences were observed between the study groups in regard to the occurrence of pain (on the fourth day p = 0.68). The variables of birthing method, parity, age or nationality of the women had no effect on the degree of injury of the nipples or on the intensity of pain. The results of this pilot study suggest that repeated micro-education for breastfeeding women should be implemented during the first days after giving birth.