Mothers’ Empowerment in Breastfeeding and Its Relationship with Exclusive Breastfeeding

Background: The appropriate nutrition of newborn with breastfeeding had been mentioned in the Qur an. Knowing the effective factors on it has the significant role in promoting the exclusive breastfeeding policy. This study aimed to investigatethe mothers’ empowerment in breastfeeding and its relationship with the exclusive breastfeeding and identification of the related demographic- reproductive factors.Methods:The cross-sectional study was done on 370 mothers with a six-month-old child admitted to the primary health care centers inNoorTownship. Mothers were categorized according to the type of breastfeeding to two exclusive breastfeeding and Non-exclusive breastfeeding groups. The mothers’ empowerment in breastfeeding was assessed by the breastfeeding empowerment questionnaire with the probability total score in range of 45 to 225.Findings: The mean age of the studied mothers was 28/96± 5/32 years. Most of them were with university education (35.9%), housewife (90.5%) and 66.8% had exclusive breastfeeding.The average of the total score in the mothers’ empowerment in breastfeeding was188.77 ± 27.66. Regarding demographic-reproductive characteristics, differences were significant only in terms of unwanted pregnancy (P.V=0/047) and type of the breastfeeding’s incentive (P.V=0. 0001). In the final analysis after entering the variables in the logistic regression model only the breastfeeding empowerment’s domains remained as significant effective factors. Findings had shown that rate of the exclusive breastfeeding is more with the higher scores in these domains (except in the domain of knowledge) (PV<0/05).Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, the health promotion policymakers should plan to increase the mothers’ empowerment in breastfeeding with appropriate and purposeful interventions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Breastfeeding empowerment ، Exclusive breastfeeding ، Demographic-reproductive characteristics