Training health care workers to counsel breastfeeding mothers.

WHO and UNICEF have designed a 40-hour counseling course for maternal-child health workers that aims to impart the skills needed to assist mothers to breast feed their infant. Course participants receive training in the following communication and counseling techniques: accepting what a mother feels as valid recognizing and praising things a mother is doing right giving practical guidance using simple language making suggestions rather than commands and limiting the information provided so as not to overwhelm the mother. In addition health workers are trained on the attachment and positioning techniques that promote successful breast feeding. Such techniques include having the infants chin touch the breast more areola exposed above than below the infants mouth close contact with the mothers body and arrangement of the babys head and body in a straight line. Common concerns such as mothers fears that they are not producing enough milk sore nipples and breast feeding practices when an infant is sick are addressed. At the conclusion of the training health workers apply the skills they have learned in maternity wards and maternal-child health clinics.