Background & Aim: The effect of the anesthetic substance given to the mother during cesarean section, and the pain experienced by the mother after the intervention practiced on the mother during cesarean section delay the mother-infant interaction and the initiation breastfeeding time. This study has been conducted to determine the effects of breastfeeding counseling given to the mothers that gave birth by cesarean section on initiation breastfeeding time and body temperature of newborn in Turkey.
Methods & Materials: The study has been conducted in the gynecology and obstetrics service of State Hospital between April 15, 2013, and November 14, 2013, on 95 with suitable criterion for the research (45 experimental and 50 controls) newborns with mothers who have had cesarean birth using quasi-experimental design. In data analysis, frequency distribution, correlation, chisquare test, t-test for independent groups have been used.
Results: Initiation breastfeeding time among mothers in the experimental group was 49.97 ± 12.78 minutes which was shorter than in the control group (101.56 ± 42.56 minutes). The incidence of hypothermia in newborns of the control group was significantly higher than those of newborns in the experimental group. As the time of initial breastfeeding got shorter, the body temperature of newborns in control and experimental groups after 30 minutes, the 4th and 10th hour after the birth increased.
Conclusion: It has been observed that breastfeeding counseling shortens the initial time of breastfeeding, and rises body temperature of the newborn. Breastfeeding counseling is important for early mother-infant interaction after cesarean section, starting breastfeeding within the first 1 hour and protecting the newborn from hypothermia.