The Role of Counseling Application towards the Rise of Breastfeeding Knowledge among Pregnant Women in the Third Trimester

Abstract

Breastmilk is considered the most impeccable and primary food for infants. Breastfeeding counseling can be such an effective way to increase exclusive breastfeeding coverage. This study aims to determine the effect of providing counseling applications towards the rising knowledge on third-trimester expectant mothers related to breastfeeding.
This research applies a combined method, namely Research and Development (R&D) and one-group quasi-experimental design, that involves pre-test and post-test. Furthermore, this study was conducted at the Public Health Centre (Puskesmas) of Pangkajene from January to February 2021. The sample in this study consists of 49 expectant mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy. The technique of data collection adapts purposive sampling. Application assessment is carried out using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire. TAM is useful for assessing the acceptance of the model from the counseling application. Moreover, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test is applicable for data analysis in this study.
The experts from two different backgrounds confirmed the validation test results, i.e., media expert assessment (87%) and material expert assessment (89%), show that the counseling application is applicative. However, the assessment for accepting the model sourced from counseling application on small-scale field tests and large-scale field tests through TAM questionnaire investigates that the application is very well accepted by the expectant. Assessment of the level of knowledge obtained an average pre-test score of 71.02% in which was categorized as sufficient knowledge category. Additionally, the post-test score is found out to be increased at 86.83% in the category of good knowledge level after receiving such counseling application intervention. In other words, the result of pre-test and post-test proves positive trends due to Android-based counseling application intervention. Furthermore, the significance test attempted to determine the discrepancy of increasing average value on pre-test and post-test through Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test. The result has been tested to be significant (ρ = 0.000).
The counseling application is feasible and acceptable by the expectant mothers as the sample of this study. It also significantly affects pregnant women's knowledge in the third trimester regarding breastfeeding education.