Providing Peer Mother Support Through Cell Phone and Group Meetings to Increase Exclusive Breastfeeding in Kenya

The general objective was to assess whether participation from late pregnancy through to 3 months postpartum in bi-weekly cell phone based peer support (CPS) or monthly peer-led support groups (PSG) can increase adoption and duration of EBF amongst low-income women in Kenya served by a nationalized BFHI certified hospital above benchmarks achieved with current approaches and standard of care by existing facility-based support (SOC).

The study aimed to reach the following specific objectives related to message delivery on EBF:

assess the feasibility of two innovative approaches (CPS and PSG) to deliver extended postnatal peer support for EBF by women in an urban, low-income country setting; compare the effectiveness of these two innovative approaches to existing facility-based support; and compare the relative effectiveness of each type of peer support intervention.

Inclusion criteria

for mothers:

• attending antenatal care services at the target facility;
• confirmed pregnant by a health care worker;
• 24-32 weeks gestation at enrollment;
• competency in KiSwahili or English (or both)
• current resident of Nakuru municipality and expecting to reside there for the next 6 months;
• intend to breastfeed their newborn;
• self-report of any condition preventing the subject from breastfeeding (excluding HIV infection)
• no history of mental illness
• either HIV-negative on test result OR referred bto PMTCT services following verified positive HIV-test results
• willing to participate in study described in IC forms
• 18-45 years of age