DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pc866t1t6
title: Data from: Identifying and overcoming breastfeeding challenges using two-way short message service, a randomized controlled trial

description: Breastfeeding challenges, such as pain and perception of insufficient milk
 supply, prevent many women from exclusively breastfeeding their babies for
 the six-month duration recommended by the World Health Organization.
 Mobile health strategies may help women identify and overcome
 breastfeeding challenges. This study evaluated a two-way short message
 service (SMS) intervention that delivered breastfeeding messages to women
 in Kiambu County, Kenya, and its impact on rates of exclusive
 breastfeeding and breastfeeding behavior at 1, 4, and 6 months
 post-delivery. Women in the control group received a general package of
 messages containing postnatal information; women in the intervention group
 received these messages, plus messages related to breastfeeding and
 surveys which offered more information about breastfeeding challenges.
 Both groups of women had access to a help desk agent who responded to
 questions via SMS. There was no significant difference in the rate of
 exclusive breastfeeding between the intervention and control at any time
 point (p=.861). Women in the intervention group were more likely to report
 experiencing breastfeeding challenges such as pain and perceived
 insufficient milk supply than those in the control group (32% vs. 24%,
 p=0.00). Of the women in the intervention group who reported experiencing
 breastfeeding challenges, 70% of them found a resolution to their
 challenge, and 23% of them resolved their challenges using SMS. SMS may
 help women in low-resource settings to identify and overcome their
 breastfeeding challenges.
description: Study follow-up took place over a five month period. An external
 firm was contracted to collect data via phone surveys conducted by trained
 female enumerators. Participants were allocated into mutually exclusive
 follow-up groups to be called at either one, four, or six months after
 receiving the first postpartum text message, respectively. The
 questionnaire was designed and initially pretested with a few PROMPTS
 users, and the final tool was piloted with 10 participants before data
 collection began. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) Surveys was used
 to host the survey and enumerators captured data using the Open Data Kit
 application on their smartphones (getodk.org, 2020; ONA Systems Inc.,
 2010). The survey took approximately 15-20 minutes, beginning with
 obtaining informed consent. It included questions on breastfeeding and
 infant feeding practices, challenges such as pain while breastfeeding and
 perceived low milk supply, and demographic questions. The enumerators made
 up to three over multiple days attempts to reach the participants and
 participants were considered eligible for follow-up within a window of 14
 days of their designated follow-up date. The enumerators were blinded to
 whether the participants were in the intervention or control groups
 throughout the data collection process. Study participants could not be
 blinded to their treatment status because the messages they received
 either featured breastfeeding information or not. Survey questions were
 translated into Swahili and participants were asked to select their
 language of choice during the interview.
description: The data are in a .txt file. There is a data dictionary in an
 .xlsx file. The questionnaire that was used for data collection is also
 included as a .doc file.