THE EFFECT OF MODELING MATERNAL-INFANT INTERACTIVE BEHAVIORS ON LACTATION OUTCOMES WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING EDUCATION.
Contributors: Clemson University.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 81
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this experimental research was to determine if there is a difference in lactation outcomes between mothers who observe maternal-infant interactive behaviors modeled using the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) and those who do not.

The study sample consisted of 59 primiparous women who had delivered healthy full term infants in one of two hospitals located in South Carolina during the months of February, March and April, 1986. All subjects had indicated breastfeeding as their choice of infant feeding method. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each mother in Group I (n = 29) observed a newborn assessment performed using the NBAS as a tool to demonstrate individual infant responses to stimuli in the environment. Mothers in Group II (n = 30) served as a control group. Subjects were contacted approximately four weeks after delivery and were asked about their method of infant feeding at that time. Individuals were classified as either breastfeeding (n = 43) or not breastfeeding (n = 16) according to criteria which defined breastfeeding as utilization of breast milk as the primary method of infant feeding during the time period under investigation, with supplementation using formula or other substances comprising less than half of the infant's daily diet.

Data were obtained using the chi square test with the level of significance set at .05. No statistical difference was found in lactation outcomes between those mothers who had observed the NBAS and those who had not. Based on these findings, the null hypothesis, which states that there would be no difference in lactation outcomes between mothers who observe maternal-infant interactive behaviors modeled using the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) and those who do not, could not be rejected.

Limitations in this study include the effect of social, cultural, and physiological variables on subjects in the geographic area under investigation which are unknown; and the presence of a Hawthorne effect on subjects in both treatment and control groups which may have affected lactation outcomes. Due to limitations of the design, study findings should be viewed with caution.

Recommendations for further study and implications for nursing education are included.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 2900.

Thesis (ED.D.)--CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, 1986.

School code: 0050.