Exploring the Socio-Cognitive Correlates of Breastfeeding in a Group of Romanian Mothers

The aim of our study was to develop and test the efficiency of a short informative intervention meant to increase mothers' adherence to breastfeeding while investigating potential associations between several social-cognitive variables and breastfeeding behaviour. Enhancing the rates of breastfeeding continuation is currently considered a very important objective for health educators due to its extensively documented benefits for newborns' health (Giles et al., 2014). Self-report questionnaires were administered to 74 women both two-three months before giving birth and when the child was three-six months old. Only 70 women participated to both stages of our study, 35 of which participated in our intervention, while the other 35 were assigned to the control condition. Results showed that mothers' perceived breastfeeding self-efficacy, their intention to breastfeed, their social norms and their outcome expectancies regarding breastfeeding were all associated with breastfeeding their child at three-six months after giving birth. Moreover, the mothers who participated in our short informative intervention were more likely to continue their breastfeeding behaviour at three-six months after giving birth as compared to mothers in the control group. Our results are discussed in the light of their contribution to previous research in this field and of their applicability for field practice