Aim:

The aim of this study was to determine the breastfeeding self-efficacy of mothers with 0-6 month-old babies, who applied to the children’s polyclinic of a state hospital; and to examine the relation of breastfeeding self-efficacy with related factors.

Materials and Methods:

This is a defining study. It was done with 107 mothers who applied to the pediatric outpatient clinic of a public hospital in Konya with their babies 0-6 months of age. Data were collected via survey forms and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale. Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis, Mann Whitney test, one-sided variance analysis, t test and spearman correlation analyses were used in order to analyze the data.

Results:

It was established that the average age of the mothers participating in the research was 26.40±4.77 years, 45.8% of them were high school or university graduates, 40.19% had one child, and 67% didn’t work. According to the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale marking average (p<0.05), the results were meaningful with regard to the mothers being graduates of high school or university (62.77±8.02), working mothers (62.7±7.53), with 3 children (64.47±5.56). The Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale marking average also showed that there is a weak and positive relation between the age of the mother, the number of pregnancies, and the age of the baby (in weeks); and a mid-level and positive relation between the number of births and living children (p<0.05).

Conclusion:

It was determined that the level of breastfeeding self-efficacy can be affected by the age, and education of the mother, whether she is working or not, the number of pregnancies and births, the number of living children and the age of the baby (in weeks).

Keywords: Baby, mother, breastfeeding, self-efficacy scale