The effect of foot reflexology on the volume and composition of breast milk inmothers of premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit

to determine the effect of foot reflexology on the volume and composition of breast milk in mothers of premature babies hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Clinical trial with control group, with parallel groups, without blinding, randomized, on 74 mothers, Random Allocation Software was used for randomization.

The researcher will refer to the nicu department of Rohani Babol hospital and the samples will be selected according to the entry criteria. They will complete the demographic profile questionnaire. In the intervention group, 20 minutes of foot reflexology is performed daily for seven consecutive days, and sampling is done 30 minutes after reflexology, and reflexology is not performed in the control group. In both groups, milk will be milked from each breast for 15 minutes with the presence of the researcher.

The inclusion criteria include the mother's desire to participate in the research, the intrauterine age of the baby between 28 and 34 weeks, a written doctor's order based on the mother's permissibility of breastfeeding, and the exclusion criteria include stopping breastfeeding due to the clinical conditions of the newborns, the discharge of the baby during Intervention, death of the baby, absence of the mother even for one day during the seven days of the intervention, mothers who have postpartum depression.

In the intervention group, 20 minutes of foot reflexology is performed daily for seven consecutive days, and reflexology is not performed in the control group.

Breast milk volume, breast milk cholesterol, breast milk triglycerides, breast milk albumin, breast milk total protein, breast milk calcium

People will be included in the study if they are eligible based on the entry criteria and after obtaining written informed consent. Due to the fact that the subjects of the study do not enter the study at the same time, and the researchers cannot predict in advance which group each person who enters the study will belong to. To allocate the target group to one of the two study groups (two groups A and B), block randomization method with six blocks will be used. Then the participants will be assigned to one of two groups 1-control 2-intervention according to the block randomization protocol (produced by Random Allocation Software) with a ratio of 1:1:1, in a way that the researcher cannot predict. In which intervention group is the next person placed? Concealment of random allocation refers to the method used to perform a random sequence on the participants in the study, so that the assigned group is not known before the allocation of the individual. Without hiding the random sequence, there is a possibility of revealing the random sequence, which ultimately weakens the randomization process. Therefore, it is necessary to make a decision to accept or reject participation in the study first and complete the informed consent form and then the participants are assigned to each of the groups. Different methods can be used to hide random allocation. In this study, the method of sealed opaque envelopes with a random sequence will be used. Based on the sample size of this research, a number of opaque envelopes (in order to make the contents of the envelopes unclear) were prepared and each random sequence was created. It is recorded on a card and the cards are placed in the envelopes in order. In order to maintain a random sequence, the outer surface of the envelopes is numbered in the same order. Finally, the lid of the letter envelopes is glued and placed in a box. At the time of registration, based on the order of entry of eligible participants into the study, one of the envelopes will be opened and the allocated group of that participant will be revealed. More about this source textSource text required for additional translation information Send feedbackSide panels