Interventions to Promote Breastfeeding in Europe: Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Breastfeeding is thought to be crucial for the infant's healthy growth, for enhancing the mother-child attachment emotionally, and for protecting women from developing gynecological cancers. However, both the use of artificial milk and the length of time spent breastfeeding have decreased in recent years.

Aim: The purpose of this systematic review was to study the interventions that have been implemented in the last five years in the countries of Europe in order to promote breastfeeding in pregnant women and women in postpartum period. The articles included in the review underwent quality assessment using tools such as the Cochrane risk of Bias (RoB-2), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Joanna Briggs Institute. (JBI).

Material and method: The literature search was performed between December 2023 and January 2024 in databases: Pubmed, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar, for the years 2018-2023 using the keywords “intervention”, “breastfeeding”, “lactation”, “primiparous”, “women”, “infant” as well as synonyms.

Results: A total of 20 studies were included in the review. It was observed that the majority of interventions were particularly effective both in increasing the rates of breastfeeding and its duration. In addition, the interventions contributed greatly to increasing mothers' self-efficacy for breastfeeding. Mothers gained knowledge and skills about breastfeeding while feeling more confident to breastfeed and successfully deal with any problems that arise. Therefore, it was important the contribution of peer women who implemented the interventions after they had been receiving training from health care professionals.

Conclusions: In conclusion, it is deemed necessary to maintain the implementation of interventions aimed at promoting breastfeeding, especially when these are implemented by peer women.

Keywords: Lactation, Infant nutrition, Health promotion, Feeding behavior