Abstract:

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the effect of fatigue level and breastfeeding status of mothers in the early postpartum period. The study was conducted between December 2019 and May 2020 with 300 women hospitalized in the maternity and obstetrics wards of a state hospital. Data were collected using the Descriptive Data Collection Form, the Visual Assesment Scale for Fatigue (VAS-F), and the LATCH Breastfeeding Diagnosis and Assessment Tool. Data were analyzed using Cronbach's alpha, independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, ANOVA test, Kruskal Wallis H test, Pearson/Spearman correlation, and regression analysis. According to the findings of the study, the difference between the number of times mothers breastfed their babies in a day, the duration of leaving the baby at the breast, and the status of receiving prenatal breastfeeding counseling and the fatigue score of the VAS-F was found to be significant (p<0.05). As a result of the study, it was concluded that mothers who breastfed their babies frequently had lower fatigue levels; mothers who breastfed their babies for 15-20 minutes had higher energy scores and lower fatigue scores; mothers who received prenatal breastfeeding counseling had higher energy scores, while those who did not receive this counseling had higher fatigue scores. It was concluded that there was a correlation between the fatigue score of the mothers in the VAS-F, the LATCH Breastfeding Diagnosis and Assessment Toolscore, and the time to first breastfeeding. In this case, as the VAS-F fatigue score of mothers in creases, the time to initiate breastfeeding is prolonged.

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