Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 13 years ago
Last updated 3 years ago
Read so far

Breast-feeding counselling in a diarrhoeal disease hospital

0 comments

Haider, R., A. Islam, et al. (1996). "Breast-feeding counselling in a diarrhoeal disease hospital." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 74(2): 173-179.

Methods: Lactation counsellors were trained to advise mothers of partially breast-fed infants who were admitted to hospital because of diarrhoea, so that they could start exclusive breast-feeding during their hospital stay. Infants (n = 250) up to 12 weeks of age were randomized to intervention and control groups. Mothers in the intervention group were individually advised by the counsellors while mothers in the control group received only routine group health education.

Results: During follow-up at home by the counsellors a week later, only the mothers in the intervention group were counselled. All the mothers were evaluated for infant feeding practices at home two weeks after discharge. Among the 125 mother-infant pairs in each group, 60% of mothers in the intervention group were breast-feeding exclusively at discharge compared with only 6% in the control group (P < 0.001); two weeks later, these rates rose to 75% and 8% in the intervention and control groups, respectively (P < 0.001). However, 49% of mothers in the control group reverted back to bottle-feeding compared with 12% in the intervention group (P < 0.001). Thus, individual counselling had a positive impact on mothers to start exclusive breast-feeding during hospitalization and to continue the practice at home. Maternal and child health facilities should include lactation counselling as an integral part of their programme to improve infant feeding practices. When infants afflicted with diarrhea were brought to the Hospital of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 125 mother-infant pairs received at least three lactation counseling sessions on the benefits of exclusive breast feeding. Researchers compared data on these 125 pairs with data on 125 other mother-infant pairs who were also at ICDDR,B due to diarrhea but did not receive any counseling. Infants in the intervention group had a shorter hospital stay than those in the control group (4.3 vs. 3 days; p .001). The controls left before diarrhea ended, while cases were discharged after diarrhea ended. At discharge, mothers in the intervention group were more likely than controls to be predominantly breast feeding (breast milk plus oral rehydration solution [ORS]) (30% vs. 19%) as well as exclusively breast feeding (60% vs. 6%) (p .001). Two weeks after discharge, when ORS was stopped, mothers in the intervention group were more likely to be exclusively breast feeding than those in the control group (75% vs. 8%), while those in the control group were more likely to bottle feed than cases (49% vs. 12%) (p .001). Infants in the control group were more likely to have another episode of diarrhea within 2 weeks than those in the intervention group (15 vs. 4; p = .05; odds ratio = 2.92).

Conclusions: These findings indicate that individual lactation counseling had a strong influence on mothers to begin exclusive breast feeding during hospitalization and to continue to do so at home. Thus, staff at maternal and child health facilities should integrate lactation counseling into their program to improve infant feeding practices.