Objective: To assess early care and education professionals' breastfeeding knowledge and practices before and after an e-learning program.
Participants: Early care and education professionals from New Hampshire (U.S.A.) licensed child care programs were invited to complete a pre-assessment followed by a 90-minute e-learning breastfeeding program. Three months post-training, participants were invited to complete the post-assessment.
Analysis: McNemar tests were used to assess changes from pre-post-assessment for dichotomous variables. McNemar-Bowker tests were used to determine differences from pre-post for variables with more than two categories. When the McNemar-Bowker test was significant, a multiple comparison correction (Bonferroni) was used.
Results: 114 participants completed the e-learning program and pre-post assessment. Results showed significant improvement from pre-post in 10 of 15 breastfeeding knowledge questions related to health of baby, mother and child care centers, economics, and environmental impact. There were significant changes from pre-post in 24 of 50 breastfeeding practice questions in handling breast milk, promoting breastfeeding, and supporting mothers.
Conclusions and implications: This study indicates improvement in early care and education professionals' breastfeeding knowledge and practices; however, opportunities exist to design targeted initiatives to further strengthen practices that support breastfeeding families in the child care environment.
Keywords: Breastfeeding; Breastfeeding education; Breastfeeding support; Child care; Early care and education; Infant nutrition.