Testing mothers' knowledge of breastfeeding: instrument development and implementation and correlation with infant feeding decision.

A simple educational curriculum designed for use in promoting breastfeeding among low income prenatal women was developed along with reliable instruments suitable for use as pre- and posttests in such a group. Using these instruments women who received the prenatal education about breastfeeding were shown to learn and retain this information when compared to a control group who received no special instruction. Furthermore, those who chose breastfeeding scored higher on the posttest than those who bottle fed their infants. Widespread use of such interventions has the potential to improve the incidence of breastfeeding among low income groups in this country.