The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
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.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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The effect of a postnatal education and support program on breastfeeding among primiparous women: A randomized controlled trial.

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Khresheh, R., A. Suhaimat, et al. (2011). "The effect of a postnatal education and support program on breastfeeding among primiparous women: A randomized controlled trial." International Journal of Nursing Studies 48(9): 1058-1065.

Introduction: Women's traditional way of breastfeeding has altered in Jordan with rates declining in recent years.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to test whether the introduction of an educational program supporting breastfeeding would increase the proportion of women who breastfed fully to six months, improve the women's level of breastfeeding knowledge, and decrease the proportion of infants admitted to hospitals due to gastrointestinal illnesses.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 90 primiparous women who had given birth to a healthy, full term, singleton baby at two hospitals in the southern region of Jordan. Women were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n=. 45), in which they were offered a one-to-one postnatal educational session and follow-up phone calls at two months and four months postpartum, or the control group (n=. 45), in which they received routine postnatal care. The primary outcomes were the proportion of women fully breastfeeding their babies at six months and the women's level of breastfeeding knowledge at six months postpartum.

Results: The postnatal education and support program significantly improved breastfeeding knowledge measured by differences between mean pre- and post-test scores. This was statistically significant for the intervention group (p<0.001) but was not significant for the control (p=0.23). The proportion of women fully breastfeeding their babies at 6 months was not found to be statistically significantly different between the intervention group (39%) and the control group (27%), percentage difference=12% (95% confidence interval [-9% to 30%], Chi squared: χ 2=3.54, p>0.05).

Conclusions: Although the postnatal education and support program improved breastfeeding knowledge among women in the study, this increase in knowledge did not translate to an increase in the duration of full breastfeeding to six months.