Abstract:

Aim: This study was carried out to determine the effects of mothers perceived social support during postnatal period on their perceived breastfeeding self-efficacy Material and method: The research is cross-sectional study. The study was carried out with 200 mother who presented to a private University Hospital for delivery in western Turkey between February 2016 and June 27. The data were collected using sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale. Percentages, Kruskal Wallis one-way analysis of variance, Mann Whitney u test and spearman’s correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean scores the participating mothers obtained from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale were 73.35 ± 12.01 and 59.11 ± 8.18 respectively. There was a statistically significant correlation between the variables such as the participating mothers’ education status and their families’ place of residence, and the mean score they obtained from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The correlation between the variables such as the participating mothers’ age, educational status, number of deliveries, breastfeeding status and their husbands' age and the mean score they obtained from the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale was also statistically significant. Conclusion: The correlation analysis performed at the end of the present study revealed that there was a positive, weak, statistically significant relationship between the mean scores the participating mothers obtained from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale.

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