International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | September-October 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 5 Page 1610 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Choudhary R et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2017 Sep;4(5):1610-1613 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Effect of lactation counselling on breast feeding: randomized control trial Ramesh Choudhary 1 *, Chetan Meena 1 , Sunil Gothwal 1 , S. Sitaraman 1 , Sheela Sharma 1 , Dilip Raj Verma 2 INTRODUCTION Exclusive breastfeeding is single most intervention to reduce the infant mortality rates (13%). It saves life and ensures quality survival for adulthood. Optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding includes early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months of age followed by introduction of complimentary feeding in form of homemade semi solid foods. Breastfeeding should be continued for at least two years of age along complimentary feeding. 1 The World Health Organization recommends that breast feeding should start within an hour of birth and should be exclusively breast fed, on demand, for the first six months. 2 Around 26 million babies born in India every year, only about 45% are breast fed within the first hour of life and that 65% of children are exclusively breast fed for the first six months. 3 Half of the newborns are not breast fed during the initial hour of life after birth. As per National family health survey (NHFS III) 14% at 1 st hour and 33% breastfeeding rates at 6 months of postnatal age in Rajasthan. 4 There are various reasons for low breastfeeding rates in Rajasthan. Maternal mental makeup, awareness and low education are important factors behind it. Mothers needs help and support for successful breastfeeding. Counseling has been shown to be effective intervention to increase rates of early initiation of breastfeeding, reduce rates of prelacteal feeding and increase rates of exclusive breastfeeding. 5 At our centre we did not have dedicated breast-feeding counselors. Recently we started human milk banking at 1 Department of Pediatrics, 2 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Received: 25 June 2017 Accepted: 07 July 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Ramesh Choudhary, E-mail: drrameshchoudhary@yahoo.co.in Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Breastfeeding for a newborn is a standard of care. Breast feeding rates are documented low in our country. Objective of present study was to find out the effect of lactation counselling on breast feeding rates. Methods: It was an open lable randomized control trial and conducted at Department of Pediatrics and Obstetrics of a tertiary care hospital of Northern India. Eligible subjects were 3 rd trimester mothers admitted for delivery. Student t test and chi square test were used. Results: Breast feeding counseling (intervention) group resulted in early imitation, higher breast-feeding rates at discharge and follow up. Conclusions: Breast feeding counselling improves initiation, breast feeding rates at discharge and beyond. This study also emphasizes that lactation counselling is useful. Every opportunity of counselling should be availed by health care workers to promote breast feeding. Keywords: Breast feeding, Breast feeding rates, Lactation counselling DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20173187