Lacta Massage Using Fennel Essential Oil to Increase Prolactin Hormone Levels in Postpartum Mothers

Introduction Breastmilk is the first food, the main and the best food for babies. About 30 % of mothers experience breastfeeding problems in the first 2 weeks postpartum and lack of milk production is often used as a reason to cease breastfeeding. Lacta massage using fennel essential oil is one of the non-pharmacological therapies that can be used as an alternative effort in stimulating the hormone prolactin to increase milk production. Research Method True experiment with the pretest-posttest design with control group design. A total of 34 respondents. Data analysis using Paired T-Test, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney Results There were significant differences between the intervention group and the control group with a value of 0.041. In the intervention group, there was an average increase in prolactin hormone levels of 93.12 ng/ml and in the control group of 7.6 ng/ml. Conclusion Lacta massage using fennel essential oil is effective for increasing prolactin hormone levels in postpartum mothers so that it can be used as an alternative effort to increase breast milk production.