Effectiveness of Breast Feeding on Pain Perception During Vaccination among Infants

The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of breast feeding on pain perception during vaccination among infants. A True experimental, post test control group design was adopted with a total number of 200 subjects (100 Experimental group + 100 control group infants) from urban health centre by ‘simple random sampling’ method, Vijayawada. The tools used for conducting the study were a set of demographic variable, modified behavioral pain scale and visual analog scale. Infants nursed just before (5 min), during and after vaccination for the experimental group and Infants of control group placed in the mothers hands without being breast feed and collected pain score and crying duration. Data were analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. The present study which clearly shows that there was a significant reduction in the pain perception during vaccination among infants of experimental group with ‘t’ value10.7482 for modified behavioral pain scale and 12.9932 as per VAS at 0.01 level of significance, which emphasizes that breast feeding can be used as an effective pain relieving measure during vaccination.