Predictors of Exclusive Breastfeeding among Nulliparous Iranian Mothers: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Although exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is highly emphasized by the experts, nulliparous women do not adhere to this behavior at a desirable level. Since it seems that mothers’ beliefs and values play an important role in their adherence to these behaviors, the present study, aimed to perform a careful analysis of the behavior and evaluation of factors associated with the EBF in nulliparous women referring to healthcare centers in Bushehr using theory of planned behavior.
This is a cross-sectional study, which was conducted on 400 nulliparous mothers with children less than six-months who referred to healthcare centers in Bushehr, Iran. Stratified random-sample was used and data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and were later analyzed using statistical tests, including Pearson, Spearman, linear regression and logistic regression in SPSS version 22.0 Software.
The results showed that 62.5% of infants were exclusively breast-fed. Variables such as infant' gender, father's occupation and type of pregnancy were significantly related with EBF behavior. Constructs, including attitude (P The theory of planned behavior is an appropriate framework to identify factors associated with the EBF behavior among nulliparous Iranian mothers. Therefore, designing interventions based on this theory seems to have the potential to improve the EBF practice.