Breast-feeding counseling by a 24-hour telephone hot-line.

A 24-hour telephone hot-line functioning as a counseling service and case registry was included in a multi-faceted breast-feeding promotion program. The mothers could speak directly to especially trained staff members in a municipal hospital. All the questions were answered according to an "Answering Book" which included the anticipated question and the optimum answer. A total of 201 calls, which included 340 problems, were recorded from January 1, 1993 to October 31, 1993. Almost all the calls were made by the mothers (99%), and more than half (57.7%) of the mothers were primiparous. Most of the calls (79.6%) were made between 8 AM to 4 PM. The questions were frequently raised when the baby was aged 8 to 14 days (23.4%). The most frequently asked questions were: (1) insufficient milk? (14.1%), (2) frequent and loose stools? (13.2%), (3) weaning? (10.3%), (4) drugs? (6.8%), (5) additional formula or water? (6.2%), and (6) maternal contraindication? (6.2%). Although the impact of this telephone consultation could not be properly evaluated, the incidence of breast-feeding during hospital stay increased from 50% to 73.4%, and breast-feeding for more than 1 month increased from 22.7% to 42.2% before and after the whole promotion program. It is recommended that health care professionals provide more help when the mother leaves the hospital. A nation-wide toll-free telephone operated by the Department of Health to increase the chance of successful breast-feeding is also recommended.