Effect of Nutrition Peer Counseling and Breastfeeding the Improvement in exclusive breastfeeding and Infant Nutrition Status in Sub lubuk Pakam and Tanjung Morawa, deli Serdang Mahdiah1, Siagian Albiner2, Aritonang Evawany y2, Lubis Namora Lumongga2 1Nutrition Department of Health Polytecnic, Ministry of Health, Medan, Indonesia 2Faculty of Public Health, University of Sumatera Utara. Indonesia Online published on 5 May, 2018. Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nutrition and breastfeeding counseling on maternal knowledge, attitudes and practicing of exclusive breastfeeding. This study was a Quasi-Experimental Design with the design of pre-test and post-test non-equivalent control group. Sixty four pregnant mothers were recruited; 32 mothers in intervention group and 32 mothers as control group. The counselors educated mothers for eight times for seven months; two times month prior to delivery and six time after delivery. To measure the effect of intervention, thirty questions including food recall were delivered to mothers get the information on knowledge, attitudes and exclusive breastfeeding, food intake and nutrition status. Statistical analysis used independent t-test and Chi-square. Before intervention there was no significantly different of the scores of knowledge, attitude and behavior (p>0.05). after intervention there was significantly improvement of the tree variables (knowledge: 13, 08±11, 59 vs 0, 39±7, 92; p=0.00) attitude: 10, 52±10, 77 vs 3, 54±6, 87; p <0, 05) and the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding 40.6% vs 14.1%; p=0.00Conclusion Peer breastfeeding counseling effectively improved mothers nutritional knowledge, attitude and exclusive breastfeeding practicing. The role of peer counselor highly affected the positive changing. Therefore, breastfeeding counseling at the community level should be carried out intensively by utilizing peer counselors. Top Keywords Nutrition and breastfeeding, peercounseling, behavioralbreastfeeding exclusive, . Top |