Breastfeeding Education Using the Card Game Method

Breastfeeding is a safe feeding method that meets all nutritional and health needs of infants, strengthens immunity, protects against invisible microbes such as diarrhea and pneumonia, and improves growth, development, health and survival. Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and continuing breastfeeding for 2 years can improve the physical, mental and emotional health of mothers and their babies.

The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for up to 6 months and breastfeeding with complementary feeding until 2 years of age and beyond, as it is directly related to improving health and preventing infant morbidity and mortality. Problems that cause mothers not to breastfeed exclusively include lack of knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding, proper breastfeeding, lack of breastfeeding consultancy services and support from health professionals, socio-cultural perceptions against breastfeeding, and lack of motivation to breastfeed.The development and implementation of effective training programs to improve breastfeeding self-efficacy is an important issue for health professionals.Therefore, the implementation of innovative strategies and methods in the field of health education can greatly contribute to women's learning in order to strengthen participation in preventive behaviors and promote breastfeeding.One of these educational methods is the card game method. Health messages are presented in various game formats such as four-card games. The educational and teaching method that uses a specific set of cards with various pictures, words and categories is a game. Card games are fun and educational games. This method has the advantages of being simple, being playable anywhere, being easy to store, being able to be played by children or adults in large or small groups and the participants being able to actively participate in the game.Nurses, who are the basic building blocks of health services, also need to provide effective care that is appropriate for the needs of the age. In this context, the educational approaches used by nurses are important. In nursing education, the use of game-based learning and teaching methods has attracted attention, especially in recent years. Game-based learning, one of the educational methods, has an important effect in increasing individuals' interest in educational subjects, ensuring the permanence of knowledge and creating motivation.It is important for health professionals to provide training and consultancy to women on this issue in order to manage the breastfeeding process correctly, which is important for the health of both the mother and the baby. In this direction, as a result of this study, it is thought that by creating special breastfeeding cards and using a gamification-based education model, correct breastfeeding behavior and self-sufficiency will be developed in mothers. No study has been found in our country where this method has been used. In this respect, the study is original. As a result of the study, it is thought that the use of this game education model by health professionals while providing breastfeeding education and consultancy will facilitate the breastfeeding process.

• LATCH Breastfeeding Diagnostic and Assessment Scale [Time frame: It will be applied to women in the control and experimental groups after birth.]
• Visual analog satisfaction scale [Time frame: It will be applied to women in experimental groups after birth.]