An Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Application of Cabbage Leaves on Reduction of Breast Engorgement among Postnatal Mothers in Selected Hospitals of Jabalpur

Abstract

Introduction: Amongst the postpartum complications, one of the commonest is breast engorgement. The nurse practitioners’ knowledge of alternative and complementary therapy of dealing with engorgements help in reducing this postpartum morbidity and thereby improving maternal and newborn care.Aim: The study was undertaken to determine the outcome of cabbage leaves’ application in reducing breast engorgement.Method: The study utilised a quasi-experimental research approach with two group pre-test post-test design. The data was collected from selected hospitals of Jabalpur city using purposive sampling technique. The sample comprised 40 postnatal mothers. The tools used for collecting demographic data were an interview along with the analogue pain scale and Hill & Humenic breast engorgement scale. Application of cabbage leaves was done for 20 minutes after breastfeeding for reduction of breast engorgement. Result: The assessment of the breast engorgement scale in this study was done in control and experimental groups. The pre and post interventional scores of the experimental group were compared. Findings related to the comparison of severity of the breast engorgement score with and without application of cabbage leaves in the control and experimental groups by the unpaired t-test showed t = 3.90 at the 0.05 level of significance, which proved that cabbage leaves are beneficial for the reduction of breast engorgement. Conclusion: In order to foster MGD 4 and MGD 5, simple and easily available techniques like cabbage leaves application on breast engorgement should be commonised in practice by nurse administrators and midwifery practitioners so that this major discomfort is relieved.