Objective: This study aims to identify factors affecting the duration of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life.

Material and method: The study was carried out on two groups of women, a study group of 125 women who received breastfeeding counselling voluntarily between July 2002 and June 2003, and a control group of 125 women who did not receive any counselling.

Hospital interventions during delivery, socio-demographic characteristics of the mother, support of the father and family members, antenatal education of the mother, are the factors evaluated for the duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
The analysis was performed using the Cox regression method and significant hazard ratio values were used for analysis. The data evaluated in this study was approved by the Ethical Committee of The medical Faculty of Istanbul University (Nr. 21375).

Results: At 6 months of age 57.6% of the infants from the study group and 11.2% from the control group were exclusively breastfeeding. When the two groups were evaluated together the leading factor affecting the duration of exclusive breastfeeding was found to be antenatal education (p=0.036). Within the first 6 months of life, the risk of stopping breastfeeding among mothers who did not receive antenatal education is 1.67 times higher than in those who had antenatal education.

Conclusion: According to our findings, the proportion of exclusive breastfeeding was significantly high in the study group. This difference became more significant among mothers who had antenatal education on breastfeeding. In conclusion, antenatal education and breastfeeding counselling seemed to be necessary for successful breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life.

Breastfeeding counselling Antenatal education Cox regression analysis Hazard ratio