Evaluation of an educational breastfeeding program for a non-profit agency in South Texas
Abstract
Description
Breastfeeding has been recognized as the most cost effective practice to promote healthier
babies among populations (Dennis, 2002). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of
an educational breastfeeding and a prenatal + breastfeeding program for individuals attending
group classes and to compare the differences between Spanish only and English only versions of
the curriculum. Two research questions were stated to know if there were significant differences
between pre and post-tests scores and if there were any significant differences in the impact of
the intervention between English only and Spanish only versions of the classes.
The present investigation was a secondary data analysis from records of participants from
the non-profit agency. The breast feeding only group class (BF) had a total of 30 participants
attending Spanish and English classes, and the prenatal + breast feeding class (PreN+BF) had a
total of 131 Spanish speaker participants. The classes were taught by a bilingual lactation
consultant from 2012 to 2014 with duration of 90 minutes each class. A pre-test was given
before the class and a post-test was given immediately after the conclusion of the class. Results
indicated significant differences between pre and post-test scores of breast feeding knowledge
suggesting that both programs were successful in increasing the scores from the breast feeding
and prenatal care tests among participants. No significant differences between English and
Spanish versions of the curriculum were found in the BF class. The reliability of the instruments
was low indicating a low consistency of items from both questionnaires. Further research needs
to be conducted to modify and implement a new curriculum and develop new instruments to
assess the breastfeeding knowledge among participants.
PDF; 95 pgs.
PDF; 95 pgs.
Keywords
Breastfeeding--Education--Texas, South--Evaluation--Case studies, Breastfeeding promotion--Texas, South--Case studies, Health education--Texas, South--Evaluation--Case studies, Health promotion--Texas, South--Case studies, Hispanic American women--Education--Texas, South--Evaluation--Case studies, Poor women--Education--Texas, South--Evaluation--Case studies, Curriculum evaluation--Texas, South--Case studies, Educational evaluation--Texas, South--Case studies