Breastfeeding behaviors
milk insufficiency
Most women in both groups planned to exclusively breastfeed at baseline, but around a quarter of women overall either did not believe they would produce enough breastmilk or were unsure. Follow-up surveys revealed that all women in the intervention group consistently reported feeding their babies “breastmilk only” while three (15%) women in the control group reported already giving their baby water at 2 weeks postpartum. In terms of perceived milk insufficiency, most women in both groups reported they were producing enough milk to satisfy their baby from 2 to 12 weeks postpartum. However, when asked if anything could help them to produce more breastmilk, most women in the control group answered, “yes, more food”, whereas nearly all women in the intervention group answered “no” (i.e., they were not lacking anything needed to support breastmilk production). At around 6 months postpartum, most women in the intervention group reported introducing complementary foods or had plans to begin doing so at 6 months postpartum or shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, less than half of the women in the control group reported introducing complementary feeding at 6 months postpartum with at least three women introducing earlier than recommended and nine women planning to wait until their baby was 7-months-old (see Table Baseline and follow-up questions about breastfeeding behaviors