Profile of calls to a breastfeeding clinic information and help telephone line

Breastfeeding mothers need orientation and help in order to succeed with breastfeeding. Lack of support from health professionals and societal barriers result in a median duration of breastfeeding in Puerto Rico of only 3 weeks. A telephone warm line at our breastfeeding clinic tries to provide some much-needed support and orientation. The purpose of this study was to determine the principal reasons for calls to the warm line and the action taken by the counselor. Five hundred and thirty three calls were received in a 4-month period. They were handled by certified lactation educators who gathered demographic and feeding information from the mother and registered the action taken. Descriptive analysis was used with crosstabs tables and multi-response analysis; chi-square test was used to establish the association between variables. 78.7% of callers were breastfeeding fully, while 21.3% were breastfeeding partially or formula feeding, 62.8% of the babies were 2 months old or less. 68.8% of the calls originated in the metropolitan San Juan area. The source of the referral was family/friend in 64.2% of calls, while only 9.8% of the callers were referred by a physician, 3.0% by hospital personnel and 2.0% by other health care providers. Significant differences between full breastfeeders and partial or artificial feeders were found in calls related to position (p = 0.01), engorgement (p = 0.04), breast refusal (p = 0.001), product information (p = 0.02), medications (p = 0.009), breastmilk management and storage (p = 0.001), and relactation (p = 0.02). Actions taken by the counselor included orientation, referral to breastfeeding specialist physician and referral to breastfeeding support groups or classes. Results indicate that more active promotion of referral to breastfeeding support groups or classes is warranted since this action was taken in only 14.5% of fully breastfeeding mothers and 12.6% of partial breastfeeding or formula users. Promotion of the warm line among physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals is also needed.