Providing education from adolescence to promote exclusive breastfeeding: a retrospective study

Abstract Although providing education regarding exclusive breastfeeding can increase the exclusive breastfeeding coverage in infants aged 0-6 months, studies investigating this association are limited. This study aimed to prove that providing education from adolescence could increase exclusive breastfeeding in infants aged 0-6 months. This retrospective study included mothers of toddlers aged 6-24 months. In total, 144 mothers from five regions were selected in two stages. First, primary healthcare centers were selected using purposive sampling, and then mothers of toddlers were selected using a simple random sampling method. Data was collected via interviews. Exclusive breastfeeding data were based on the history of breastfeeding of the mothers when the babies were 0-6 months old. A logistic progression test was performed to determine the role of providing education from adolescence and other variables in increasing the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding. The proportion of exclusive breastfeeding was 47.2%. Mothers who received education as adolescents and who underwent cesarean section showed a low tendency for exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.004 and p=0.036, respectively). Meanwhile, mothers receiving breastfeeding education during pregnancy were 5.2 times more likely to exclusively breastfeed than those not receiving it (p=0.001). Mothers who received family support were 6.6 times more likely to exclusively breastfeed than those who did not receive it (p=0.002). The provision of education from adolescence has not been proven to increase the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in 0-6-month-old infants. However, this study suggests providing education from adolescence and support from the family and social environment to perform exclusive breastfeeding successfully.