Exclusive breastfeeding and infant health in rural South Africa

This was a cross sectional observational study assessing the impact of the special training on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and the mothers’ knowledge of infant feeding practices. An intervention group formed by 95 mother-infant pairs visited by Special Trained Community Health Workers was compared to a control group of 64 mother-infant pairs visited by Community Health Workers (CHW) working for Thukela District Child Survival Project and trained using the Integrated Management Childhood Illness (IMCI) manual which included a session on the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. There were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups for most of the studied variables. However, the percentage of mothers initiating breastfeeding immediately and few hours after birth was 67% in the intervention and 92% in the control groups (p=0.001).Both study groups showed high rates of EBF and early breastfeeding initiation. The normal training of CHW may increase significantly the rates of exclusive breastfeeding, reduce the risk of diarrhoeal illness and improve infant growth in developing countries, if generally well applied.