Effect of
Effect of Breast Milk versus Therapeutic Honey ( Apicare) on Cracked Nipples' healing
Rasha Mohamed Essa1 and Enas Mohamed Ebrahim2
1 Obstetric and Gynecologic Nursing Dept, Faculty of Nursing, Damnhour University, Egypt.
2 Community health Nursing Dept, Faculty of Nursing, Damnhour University, Egypt.
[email protected] , [email protected]
Abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of breast milk versus therapeutic honey on the healing of cracked nipples. A quasi-experimental research design was carried out on a sample of (60) lactating women who were randomly selected from Salah abd-Rabo obstetric and gynecological clinic , obstetric and gynecologic Sahala center in Alexandria and subjects homes . The selected subjects were equally divided into two study groups. Each group was instructed to apply one of the two treatment modalities for 4 weeks duration. Four tools were used to collect the necessary data. The first tool was a structured interview schedule to elicit the socio-demographic and biological characteristic. The second tool was WHO B-R-E-A-S-T Feed observation form. The third tool was the healing and pain assessment scale, which comprised two parts: part 1: modified Reeda Scale & part 2: Visual analogue Scale. The fourth tool was an observational follow up chick list to assess healing speed of cracked nipples among the studied groups. The results revealed that the entire respondent's (100.0%) were suffering from nipple's redness, fissure and pain. while more than one-tenth (13.7%) of them have bleeding. Complete recovery from signs and symptoms of cracked nipples was significantly faster among women who had used the therapeutic honey 'Apicare'. The study concluded that "therapeutic honey was a better treatment for cracked nipple compared to breast milk". Consequently, it isrecommended that each lactating mother should be observed for mother's and infant's positioning and attachment at the onset of breastfeeding and if needed given counseling on correct positioning and attachment.
[Rasha Mohamed Essa and Enas Mohamed Ebrahim. Effect of Breast Milk versus Therapeutic Honey ( Apicare) on Cracked Nipples' healing. Life Sci J 2013;10(1):2137-2147] (ISSN:1097-8135).http://www.lifesciencesite.com.
Key words: breastfeeding -cracked nipples- breast milk- therapeutic honey.
