Empowering Indonesian Fathers: The Impact of Online Lactation Education on Health Literacy And Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Background
In Indonesia, only 51.5% of babies are exclusively breastfeeding. Although father involvement is proven to increase breastfeeding success, Indonesia's Maternal and Child Health (MCH) program has not had many activities focusing on fathers. This study aimed to determine the effect of online lactation education for fathers on health literacy and fathers' self-efficacy in supporting exclusive breastfeeding wives on followers of the Instagram account @ID_AyahASI.

Methods
The design of this study was quasi-experimental with pre and post-test nonequivalent control group design. Sampling was done by the non-probability sampling technique, a consecutive sampling method consisting of 35 respondents. The intervention group was given treatment through online lactation education (via Zoom) for two days (two hours each). At the same time, the control group was only assigned an e-poster of breastfeeding through the WhatsApp Group.

Results
The results showed an effect of online breastfeeding classes on health literacy and fathers' self-efficacy in supporting breastfeeding wives (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
The research found that online breastfeeding classes for fathers positively affect their health literacy and self-efficacy in supporting breastfeeding. This approach was more effective than electronic posters via a WhatsApp group in increasing health literacy, but the posters positively affected fathers' self-confidence.