Evaluation of the effectiveness of a structured breast-feeding promotion program integrated into a Maternal and Child Health service in Jerusalem.

A community program for promotion of breast-feeding integrated into the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services is presented and evaluated, using two quasi-experimental designs, comparison groups and time trends. The program, which began in 1981, included guidance from the 7th month of pregnancy to 6 months post-delivery. An increase in the percentage of breast-feeding mothers and the duration of breast-feeding was noted in the post-intervention cohorts (1981-82 and 1985) compared with the preintervention cohorts (1979-81). The comparison of the breast-feeding pattern of the 1985 birth cohort from the MCH service exposed to the program with a similar group receiving routine MCH care indicated that the percentage of mothers breast-feeding fully or partially was consistently higher among the intervention group compared with the control group at 4, 13 and 26 weeks (P = 0.0045), and the mean duration of full breast-feeding was 9.3 weeks compared with 7.0 weeks (P = 0.028). The program had a greater effect on mothers with a lower educational standard, thus closing the gap in the breast-feeding pattern by educational level in the intervention group. The evaluation indicates that a structured breast-feeding promotion program is more effective than the routine guidance received in the MCH service.