Grimes, H.A., Shafiei, T., McLachlan, H.L., and Forster, D.A. (2020) Volunteers' experiences of providing telephone-based breast-feeding peer support in the RUBY randomised controlled trial. Public Health Nutrition, 23 (16). pp. 3005-3015.

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Abstract

Objective: The Ringing Up About Breastfeeding earlY (RUBY) randomised controlled trial (RCT) found that a telephone-based peer volunteer support intervention increased breast-feeding duration in a setting with high breast-feeding initiation. This sub-study of the RUBY RCT describes the motivation, preparation and experiences of volunteers who provided the peer support intervention.

Design: An online survey was completed by 154 (67 %) volunteers after ceasing volunteering.

Setting: Volunteers provided peer support to primiparous women (n 574) who birthed at one of three public hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, between February 2013 and December 2015.

Participants: Volunteers (n 230) had themselves breastfed for at least 6 months and received 4 h of training for the role.

Results: The median number of mothers supported was two (range 1–11), and two-thirds of respondents supported at least one mother for 6 months. Volunteers were motivated by a strong desire to support new mothers to establish and continue breast-feeding. Most (93 %) considered the training session adequate. The majority (60 %) reported following the call schedule ‘most of the time’, but many commented that ‘it depends on the mother’. Overall, 84 % of volunteers were satisfied with the role and reported that the experience was enjoyable (85 %) and worthwhile (90 %). Volunteers agreed that telephone support for breast-feeding was valued by women (88 %) and that the programme would be effective in helping women to breastfeed (93 %).

Conclusions: These findings are important for those developing similar peer support programmes in which recruiting volunteers and developing training requirements are an integral and recurrent part of volunteer management.

Item ID:	81107
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1475-2727
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society
Date Deposited:	07 Dec 2023 03:05
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4204 Midwifery > 420499 Midwifery not elsewhere classified @ 20% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420601 Community child health @ 80%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2003 Provision of health and support services > 200302 Community health care @ 100%
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