Journal of Preventive Medicine

Introduction: Exclusive breast feeding is particularly important because it awards health and a lot of nutritional, emotional and psychological benefit to child. The most important reasons for decreasing duration of breastfeeding are social and cultural factors such as education, income and religion. It is therefore important to explore the factors influencing the decision, initiation, and duration of breast feeding, in order to implement effective breastfeeding promotion policies. The present study was conducted to study the barriers to the persistence of breastfeeding for at least 1 year in the Bandar-Abbas city. Method: This study is a descriptive and analytic study. Cluster random sampling technique was used to select 100 mothers who had children less than one year and referred to the medical and health centers. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed by t-test and chi-square. Results: Breastfeeding was initiated by %78 of mothers, with %53 and %27 continuing for 6 months and 1 year of age, respectively. The most important cause for terminating breastfeeding was shortage of mother&rsaquos breast milk (%38). The most common reasons for breastfeeding the babies included: benefits for the infant’s health (%56), emotional bonding with the infant (%25), availability (%11), economical reasons (%6), and religious reasons (%3). The method of childbirth in %55 of cases was Caesarian Section and 14.5 percent of them believed that this delivery method was effective in stopping the breastfeeding. There was a significant relationship between time of the first breastfeeding after the childbirth, mother’s occupation, prenatal cares, and mother or child’s illness. The main sources of mother’s knowledge on duration of breastfeeding were relatives (%47), while health center personnel played a minimal role (%9) in this regard. Conclusion: According to findings of this research, social, economical and cultural factors and wrong beliefs for early breastfeeding termination are the main causes of early breast feeding termination. Promotion of mother’s knowledge during pregnancy and after childbirth is the most important factor which can increase the breastfeeding duration.