In the breast milk odor stimulation group, one or two drops of breast milk were placed on a sponge in accordance with the literature. Breast milk was obtained from each infant's own mother by hand expressing. The mothers were asked to express two drops of breast milk from their breasts onto the sponge. The sponge on which the breast milk was dripped was placed as close to the baby's nose as possible without touching the baby's nose. Since breast milk odor stimulation is recommended to be given to the baby for 1 minute in the literature, the baby was allowed to smell the odor of breast milk for 1 minute. The baby was then given to the mother for breastfeeding and breastfeeding was initiated as in routine practice.

In this group in which the breast milk sniffing method was applied; two drops of breast milk were dripped onto a sponge in accordance with the literature and this sponge was placed as close to the nose as possible without touching the nose and the baby was allowed to smell the smell of breast milk for about 1 minute. Then the baby was given to the mother. The mother was asked to express milk manually and to apply/drip approximately 0.2 ml (approximately two drops) of the expressed colostrum starting from the tip of the baby's tongue, along the tongue surface, on both cheeks of the baby, as applied in studies using oral colostrum as a reference. The mother was also asked to express a drop of milk from her breast and manually apply it to the areola. Breastfeeding was then initiated as in routine practice.

The control group did not receive any intervention other than the routine initiation of breastfeeding at the clinic. They were provided with breastfeeding education by the lactation counselor.

In the breast milk odor stimulation group, one or two drops of breast milk were placed on a sponge in accordance with the literature. Breast milk was obtained from each infant's own mother by hand expressing. The mothers were asked to express two drops of breast milk from their breasts onto the sponge. The sponge on which the breast milk was dripped was placed as close to the baby's nose as possible without touching the baby's nose. Since breast milk odor stimulation is recommended to be given to the baby for 1 minute in the literature, the baby was allowed to smell the odor of breast milk for 1 minute. The baby was then given to the mother for breastfeeding and breastfeeding was initiated as in routine practice.

This form was created by the researchers by utilizing the literature. The descriptive information form consisted of a total of 12 questions inquiring about the mother's descriptive information (maternal age, education level, occupation, place of residence, economic status), obstetric information (mode of delivery, number of deliveries, breastfeeding experience, time of first breastfeeding) and infant information (infant's gender, birth weight, gestational week, Apgar score at 5 min).

The Turkish validity and reliability study of the scale developed by Thoyre, Ahaker, and Pridham in 2005 was conducted by Girgin et al. in 2021. The early feeding cues scale consists of 19 items and 5 subcategories and is evaluated based on observation. These categories are respiratory regulation, oral-motor function, swallowing coordination, alertness-energy status and physiological stability.The lowest total score is 19 and the highest is 57. A higher score indicates the presence of early feeding cues and a lower score indicates a decrease in early feeding cues.

It is a measurement tool developed by Jansen and Wallece in 1993, which is similar to the APGAR scoring system in terms of scoring. Turkish validity and reliability studies of the LATCH breastfeeding diagnosis form were conducted by Demirhan in 1997 , Koyun in 2001 , and Yenal and Okumuş in 2003. Each criterion in the scale is given a score between 0 and 2 and the lowest score is 0 and the highest score is 10. An increase in the scores obtained from the scale indicates breastfeeding success.

The Turkish validity and reliability study of the scale developed by Thoyre, Ahaker, and Pridham in 2005 was conducted by Girgin et al. in 2021. The early feeding cues scale consists of 19 items and 5 subcategories and is evaluated based on observation. These categories are respiratory regulation, oral-motor function, swallowing coordination, alertness-energy status and physiological stability.The lowest total score is 19 and the highest is 57. A higher score indicates the presence of early feeding cues and a lower score indicates a decrease in early feeding cues.