Informational videos to improve maternal knowledge of and comfort with using expressed breast milk in premature infants in rural Burundi

Abstract

In low-income countries, breast milk is the most reliable and most cost-effective nutrition for premature and term neonates. Most premature infants require gastric feedings of expressed breast milk via gastric tube. In many low-resource countries there is a lack of adequate personnel to teach every mother at every healthcare facility how to properly express breast milk.  In our rural Burundian premature newborn unit, we sought to evaluate the efficacy of videos by Global Health Media on improving maternal knowledge of and confidence in breast milk expression. We proposed to assess the pre-and post-intervention knowledge of breast milk expression and understating of its use of at least 75 mothers of preterm infants.  The intervention was two videos – “A small baby’s feeding journey” and “How to express your first milk” - translated into the mother’s language, Kirundi.  We used fourteen knowledge-based questions with clear answers that were given in the videos and two confidence questions. Between May 1, 2023, and November 30, 2023, we recruited 83 new mothers for the study.  The mean pre-video knowledge score was 58.3% correct; the mean post-video score was 94.6% correct (p <0.0001). The mothers’ overall confidence (somewhat or very confident) in nipple attachment and giving her milk improved after watching the video from 63.9% to 90.4% and 86.7% to 100% respectively. This study shows that immediately after watching two short educational videos, the mothers gained knowledge on how to feed their premature baby and how to better express their breastmilk and feel more confident in doing so.