Screening for Mothers at Risk to Wean Early and Referral to a Lactation Support Person for Prolonging Breastfeeding

This project trialed the breastfeeding control (BFC) scale of the Breastfeeding Attrition Prediction Tool (BAPT) to identify mothers at high risk to wean early and to determine the effectiveness of a prenatal consult with a lactation support person on breastfeeding duration and intensity. Results indicated that mothers with lower scores on the BAPT-BFC scale showed a trend for decreased breastfeeding intensity at 8 weeks postpartum. Experimental and control groups had similar BAPT-BFC scores and breastfeeding intensity at 8 weeks. Overall, women who had low BAPT-BFC scores tended to be breastfeeding less at 8 weeks compared with mothers who scored very high. This finding would suggest the BAPT-BFC is a helpful tool for predicting breastfeeding success.