Maternal breastfeeding - 2019

Qualification in breastfeeding and infant feeding counseling in the Capital District.

Hand in hand with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the District Health Secretariat and Fundación Éxito, we implemented the project during the months of June and December 2019.

The main moments of the project were:

1. Planning: conformation of the team of trainers, review, update and adjustment of the theoretical and practical contents of the course, logistical preparation, design of methodologies for qualification and development of pedagogical tools.

   
   

2. Training: The qualification process was implemented in three moments: 1) The integrated course for facilitators in infant and young child feeding counseling, 2) The integrated course in skills and techniques in infant and young child feeding counseling and 3) The replications of the integrated course in skills and techniques in infant and young child feeding counseling.

   
   

3. Follow-up: 1) breastfeeding mothers and families who received breastfeeding counseling, 2) staff trained in counseling skills and techniques.

   
   

4. Selection of the directors of the breastfeeding courses.

   
   

5. Systematization of the process and elaboration of lessons learned from the qualification process and of conclusions and recommendations for the implementation of the qualification process at the national level.

   
   

In total, 569 people were trained during phases 1 and 2 (training) and phase 3 (replication). Ninety percent of the human talent was trained in the “Infant and young child feeding counseling skills and techniques” course, 9% as facilitating counselors. Seventy percent of the trained personnel work in a sub-network of the Capital District.

The follow-up of mother-child pairs was carried out in two ways: on the one hand, face-to-face follow-up was carried out by professionals from the District Health Secretariat and on the other hand, mothers who received counseling were followed up by telephone. In total, 185 face-to-face follow-ups were recorded (135 nursing mothers). Of these 135 mothers, 32 received 2 follow-ups, 18 received 3 or more.

For the implementation of the qualification in the national territory, there were structural and operational recommendations.