The majority of mothers allocated to the intervention
group received the self-e⁄cacy sessions as
planned. In particular, 54 mothers (80.5%) received the ¢rst session within 24 hours of delivery, 63
(98.4%) received the second session within 24
hours of the ¢rst session, and 54 (88.5%) had the
¢nal contact within 1 week of discharge from the
hospital. Of the approximately 20% of participants
who did not receive the ¢rst session within 24 hours,
the main reasons were Cesarean section, early
The majority (n5 58, 85.3%) of the mothers had
the prescribed dose of the intervention, including
two in-hospital sessions and one telephone followup
postpartum. Eight (11.8%) mothers received two
of the three sessions, and two mothers (2.9%)
received only one of the three sessions, both
in-hospital. Having at least one observed breastfeeding
session was a goal for this study because
it was hypothesized that having an opportunity to
implement e⁄cacy-enhancing strategies during
the process of breastfeeding would be optimal.
Breastfeeding was observed at least once for 40
(58.8%) of the mothers. Having an observed
breastfeeding session often occurred by chance or
upon the suggestion of the researcher if the infant
was awake and interested.
In the control group, one participant withdrew at the
4-week follow-up, and two were completely lost to
follow-up. At 8 weeks, an additional ¢ve mothers
were lost to follow-up. Thus, the overall loss to follow-
up in the control group was 8 (9.9%) mothers.
Similarly, in the intervention group, four mothers
were lost to follow-up at the 4-week telephone call,
and an additional three mothers were lost to followup
at 8 weeks. Overall, seven (10.1%) mothers in total
were lost to follow-up in the intervention group,
with the addition of one participant who withdrew
in-hospital postrandomization (n5 8,11.6%).