The effect of mothers' breastfeeding knowledge levels on breastfeeding attitudes, duration and children's physical development

Mothers' breastfeeding knowledge levels may affect breastfeeding attitudes, breastfeeding duration, and physical development of children. This study aimed to investigate the effect of mothers' breastfeeding knowledge level on their attitudes towards infant feeding, anthropometric measurements and breastfeeding duration. Within the scope of the study, 140 mothers with children aged 24-36 months were included. Sociodemographic Data Form, Baby Nutrition Attitude Scale and Breastfeeding Attitude Evaluation Scale were applied to the mothers. Study data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 22 package program.The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to understand whether continuous variables showed normal distribution. Chi-Square and Fischer Exact tests were used to examine the relationship between categorical data. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between two continuous variables. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. The average score of the participants on the baby nutrition attitude scale was found to be 63.60±6.47, and the mean score on the Breastfeeding attitude evaluation scale was 112.37±11.36. BBST total scores of mothers with higher education levels were found to be statistically significantly higher (p<0.001). The BBTÖ total score of working mothers was found to be higher than that of non-working mothers (p=0.001) The average score of the Breastfeeding Attitude Evaluation Scale of participants living with a nuclear family was found to be statistically significantly higher than those living with an extended family (p = 0.030). Mothers who thought they had sufficient knowledge about breastfeeding had significantly higher scores on the Baby Nutrition Attitude Evaluation Scale (p=0.001) and the Breastfeeding Attitude Evaluation Scale (p=0.017). A significant positive correlation was found between the participants' BBTÖ total score and ETDÖ total score. A significant negative correlation was found between the BBTÖ total score and the percentage of baby weight change between 0-6 months and the percentage of baby weight change between 0-12 months. As a result, this study showed that the breastfeeding process is affected by the mother's breastfeeding knowledge level and that this process is a whole that requires family, spouse and community support.