Background: Early initiation of breast-feeding produce hormones that improve the mood of the mothers and reducing the risk of depression among them. It is one of the steps introduced by WHO\UNICEF's Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). Aim of the study: to evaluate the effect of early initiation of breast-feeding on the prevention of postpartum depression among puerperal women through an interventional program. Design: A Quasi-experimental design was utilized. Setting: This study conducted at university hospitals in one governorate of Delta region in Egypt. Sample: Simple random sample was used in this study. Three Instruments were used for data collection, an interviewing questionnaire, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and Checklist of early initiation of breast-feeding for the Puerperal women. Results: There was high (SSD) related to the scores of Edin-burg scale after applying the intervention program about early initiation of breast-feeding. In addition, there was an improvement in the scores of the women during breast feeding steps. Conclusion: intervention program about early initiation of breastfeeding succeeded in raising Edinburgh (EPDS) scores of puerperal women and in doing breastfeeding early during early post-partum period. Recommendations: Encourage all women to breast feed early as possible after labor, screening all women for postnatal depression and anxiety during post-partum. Future studiesare recommended on a large sample of puerperal women to be able to generalize the study results.
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