Effectiveness of a brief motivational intervention to increase the breastfeeding duration in the first 6 months postpartum: Randomized controlled trial

Aims To evaluate the effectiveness of a brief motivational intervention to increase the breastfeeding duration in the first 6 months postpartum in mothers who began breastfeeding in the first hour after birth and to explore the role of general and breastfeeding self‐efficacy in this relationship. Design A multi‐centre randomized controlled clinical trial. Methods Data were collected from February 2018 ‐ March 2019. Women were randomly assigned to an intervention group that received a brief motivational intervention (N = 44) or a control group that was offered standard education on breastfeeding (N = 44). Survival analysis techniques were carried out with a follow‐up of 6 months. In addition, the roles of breastfeeding and general self‐efficacy in the association between BMI and breastfeeding duration were explored through mediation/moderation analysis. Results Among 88 randomized patients (mean age, 32.82 years), 81 (92.04%) completed the trial. The survival analyses of exclusive breastfeeding and breastfeeding (exclusive and non‐exclusive) showed reductions in the risk of abandonment in the intervention group of 63% (aHR: 0.37 [0.22–0.60] p