Assessing of breast-feeding attitude and self-efficacy in mothers, infant feeding attitudes and related factors

Introduction: The aim of the study was to assess self-perception and self-efficacy of the breast-feeding mothers growth-development infant and related perception and the attitude of the mothersduring breastfeeding period. Material and Method: Mothers of the healthy infants who were admitted to Çukurova University, Faculty of Medicine, Balcali Hospital, Well Child Clinic were enrolled to the study. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Postpartum Self-efficacy Breastfeeding Scale and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale-IIFAS were applied to 118 mothers. Results: Of participating mothers; 36.4% were graduated from primary school, 31.4% were from high school, 32.2% from university whereas 34.7% were working-mothers. The mean maternal age was 29.5±4.4; years the youngest mother was 19 years old whereas the oldest one was 40 years old. Mean paternal age was 33.1±4.7; years (20-48). The mean monthly income was 3312.3±2624.3 TL. Mean age of the infants were 9.6±8.3 months. Mean rate height at birth was 49.6±2.6 cm (min 30, max 56). Mean weight at birth was 3245.8±427 grams. Planned pregnancy rate was 63.6%; pregnancy willingness rate was 94.1%. Postpartum Self-efficacy Breastfeeding Scale and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale were significantly related to the education level of the mothers (p=0.007, p˂0.001 respectively). Postpartum Self-efficacy Breastfeeding Scale scores and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale scores were significantly related to the breastfeeding education status of the mothers (p=0.001, p˂0.001 respectively). Postpartum Self-efficacy Breastfeeding Scale scores and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale scores were significantly related to the planned pregnancy rate (p˂0.001, p=0.017 respectively). Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale scores were significantly related to the gender of the infants whereas mothers who had male infants had higher Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale scores (p=0.016). Conclusion: I improving the parental education level may improve the awareness and attitude about self-efficacy and infant feeding. The role of family physicians is to contribute to family education and planning and to improve knowledge, skill and attitudes of the families and thus to contribute to community health. Keywords: Infant feeding, Breast-feeding, Self-efficacy, family physician