Factors affecting the knowledge of working pregnant related to contining breastfeeding

Purpose: The aim of this descriptive study is to investigate the factors that affect working pregnant women knowledge related to breastfeeding.Method: The data were collected between June 2010 and September 2010. Two hundred sixty healthy pregnant women who work outside the home, who plan to return to work within the first year after birth and who were at the last trimester (28-40 weeks) of the pregnancy comprised the sample of the study. For data collection, two different forms developed by the researcher in order to determine socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women and their knowledge on breastfeeding were used. For the evaluation of the data, percentage, t test, kruskall-wallis were used.Results: The mean knowledge score of the pregnant women for all the questions was 6.03 ± 2.99. Pregnant women achieved the lowest scores on the following questions: how long does it take to empty a breast while expressing milk (21.9 %), and what are the appropriate conditions for the storage of milk (27.2 %). Pregnant women achieved the highest scores on the following questions: Which method should be used to express mother?s milk (87.3 %) and what are the features of the container the milk stored in (80 %). The following mothers achieved higher mean scores of knowledge regarding how to continue to feed their babies on their own breast milk while they continue working: those whose workplace provide facilities for breastfeeding, university graduates and postgraduates, those who work with someone else who expresses her milk or breastfeeds her baby in the workplace, those who have been trained on breastfeeding and continue to breastfeed their babies in the light of this training, those who already have breastfeeding experience and those who work in the public sector.Conclusion: All these results indicate that the pregnant women do not have enough information how to continue breastfeeding and their knowledge scores are higher who have appropriate workplace conditions. In order for working women to continue breastfeeding after they give birth, it is important to provide them with information about how to express their breast milk and how to store it in their education program given during the antenatal period.Key words: "breastfeeding", "breastfeeding education?, "working pregnant women".