A Comparative Study on the Effects of "Honey and Fenugreek" with "Fenugreek" on the Breastfeeding Success: A Randomized Trial.

Objective: Herbal galactagogues are usually recommended to be sweetened with honey. Despite the high nutritious value of honey for lactating women and extensive studies on the effects of herbal galactagogues, no investigation was made to compare galactagogue effects of using herbal galactagogues with and without honey so far. The present study aimed to compare the effect of a combination of "honey and fenugreek" with "fenugreek" on breastfeeding success (BFS).

Methods: This study is a triple-blind randomized clinical trial on 75 breastfeeding mothers referred to a Tehran-Iran health center. The participants were randomly divided into two intervention (fenugreek and honey users) and control (fenugreek users) groups. These women had infants of 1-5 months and had exclusive breastfeeding practice. Tools for data collection were (1) the personal and maternal-infant information, (2) the breastfeeding success, and (3) the complications questionnaires. Participants received 30 liquid drops, three times daily for four weeks. The BFS questionnaire was completed twice, before and 4 weeks after the intervention. The CONSORT checklist was followed.

Results: Before and after comparison showed no significant difference in the BFS score in the "fenugreek" group, while there was a significant increase in the BFS score in the "honey and fenugreek" group (=0.035). Between groups, comparison demonstrated a significantly higher score of BFS in the intervention group than in the control group (=0.023). There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the possible complications.

Conclusion: The combination of honey with fenugreek showed a significant effect on BFS, while there was no improvement in BFS after fenugreek only uses. Trial registration: the study was approved in the Iranian registry of clinical trials with IRCT ID: IRCT20120122008801N23 on 2019-12-30 (https://www.irct.ir/).