Abstract:

Objectives: Breastfeeding is the ideal nutrition method for healthy growth and development of infants. In this retrospective study it was aimed to investigate the socio-demographic factors affecting the breastfeeding status in the neonatal period.Material and Methods: The study was conducted on 121 babies, who regularly attended the “Well Baby Clinic”, and records of the children were reviewed retrospectively. The sociodemographic characteristics of parents, duration of gestation, birth weight of children, and feeding regimen on the 15th days were recorded. All statistical data were analyzed using SPSS 13.0 for Windows program. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05.Results: Of the infants who were included in the study, 49.6% were female (60), and 50.4% (61) were male. The mean age of the mothers and fathers was 27.5±5.1 and 32.1±5.5 years, respectively. Sixty-three of the children (77) were born by cesarean section. Of the infants 79.3% (96) were given exclusively breast milk, whereas 20.7% (25) were given formula with breast milk. The exclusive breastfeeding rate was lower among mothers who had babies less than 2500 g (p=0.010). Duration of pregnancy was shorter in “partially-breastfed” babies (p=0.002). There was no statistically significant relation between sociodemographic factors and breastfeeding status (p>0.05).Conclusion: These data suggest that breast-feeding initiation in the neonatal period is affected by the factors such as duration of pregnancy and birth weight. It is concluded that to prevent premature births and determine the causes of low birth weight and taking the necessary measures may play an important role in increasing exclusively breastfeeding in the neonatal period

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