Breastfeeding status of 0-6 month old infants and the effective factors in ？anl？urfa

Background: The study was conducted to determine only the breastfeeding status of 0-6 month-old infants in ？anl？urfa and the effective factors. Methods: The study is cross-sectional. The population of the study consisted of mothers who had 0-6 month-old infants and resided in the city center of ？anl？urfa. The cluster sampling method was used in the sample selection and the study was completed with total 203 mothers in the environment. The data were collected using the face-to-face interview technique between 15 May – 30 July 2015 by using Data Collection Form and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale. A written permission from Harran University Ethics Committee and verbal consent from the participants were obtained for the study. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation from descriptive statistics as well as Chi-square and Mann Whitney-U test from univariate analysis were used to assess the data. The effect of independent variables on breastfeeding was evaluated by the Logistic Regression Model (Enter) method. Results: It was found in the study that out of the mothers, 71.4% had breastfeeding experience, 1.5% had problems with their first breastfeeding, and 57.1% gave supplementary food to their babies other than breast milk after the birth. The rate of only breastfeeding their babies was 37.9% in mothers behavior one-month-old infants and 26.5% in mothers behavior six-month-old infants. The rate of only breastfeeding was determined to be higher in mothers behavior who received help from healthcare professional in the first breastfeeding(p<0.05), did not give any food other than breast milk before first breastfeeding(p<0.001), and had high score of breastfeeding self-efficacy scale(p<0.001). In the logistic regression analysis, the risk of not feeding the babies only with breast milk was 139 times higher in those giving supplementary food other than breast milk before the breastfeeding. Conclusions: According to the results of the study, it was determined that the rates of only breastfeeding was quite low in the sample group and the postpartum training and counselling were only effective in breastfeeding behaviors. In accordance with these results, it is recommended to inform and support the mothers about breastfeeding by the healthcare professional also in the postpartum period starting from the pregnancy, increase their breastfeeding self-efficacy to increase breastfeeding success, and to make necessary training and counselling to prevent giving any supplementary food to the infants other than breast milk in postpartum process