(P24-059-23) Community Based Early Nutrition Program on Promoting Breastfeeding and Optimizing Infant Growth of Hong Kong Lactating Mothers: A Pilot Intervention

Objectives: The present project is a pilot intervention to evaluate the effects of postpartum nutrition program on the breastfeeding rate and infant growth among postpartum mothers in Hong Kong.

Methods: During 2018 to 2020, 40 healthy mother-child pairs have been recruited from the postnatal ward of a local hospital to join the pilot intervention. The intervention group have received an early nutrition program for 12 months while the control group will receive standard health care. The 12-month intervention was a combination of online and in-person seminars to educate mothers about the principles of healthy maternal postpartum diet, knowledge and skills of breastfeeding, feeding problems and toddler diet. The rate of breastfeeding, infant diet as assessed by 24-hour dietary recall, and infant anthropometric data was collected at each regular follow-up. In addition, mothers’ dietary quality at 2-month postpartum was assessed by Healthy Eating Index-2000 and Diet Quality Index-International.

Results: When compared to the control group, mothers in the intervention groups might have higher breastfeeding rate at 6- (31.6% vs 30.0%) and 12-month (31.6% vs 21.1%), although the difference was not statistically significant. The growth trajectory and the dietary intake of infants between intervention and control group was similar. Moreover, the dietary quality of over half of the participating mothers were classified as suboptimal. Mothers with poorer diet showed lower intake in calcium, and carbohydrate, and higher intake of total fat, saturated fat and sodium.

Conclusions: Although statistical significance may be masked by a small sample size, the postpartum intervention may have improved the breastfeeding rate of participating mothers. However, dietary quality of participants has been suboptimal. In addition to promoting breastfeeding, healthy postpartum diet should also be emphasized so that lactating mothers can provide infants with more nutritious breastmilk.

Funding Sources: Dean's Reserve (interfaculty fund)