Elsevier

Midwifery

Volume 4, Issue 4, December 1988, Pages 154-165
Midwifery

Developing an instrument to assess infant breastfeeding behaviour in the early neonatal period

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-6138(88)80071-8Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper describes the development of the Infant Breastfeeding Assessment Tool (the IBFAT) to assess and measure infant breastfeeding competence. It was designed for use by mothers, midwives and other health professionals.

The instrument consists of four items which represent the major components of infant breastfeeding behaviour. These components, readiness to feed, rooting, fixing and sucking are assigned a numerical value based upon the answer chosen by the assessor for each item. The range for each of the four items is 0 to 3, giving a total score range of 0 to 12, 12 being the score for a vigorous, effective feeding.

The instrument was used to assess the breastfeeding behaviours of 60 healthy newborn babies from birth to 4 days after birth. In total, 920 feeds were assessed by the mothers. The investigator also assessed 77 feeds. Inter-rater reliability for this study was 91%.

The instrument did appear to assess the infants' breastfeeding competence and identified changes over time.

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