The Knowledge and Opinions About Breastfeeding of Turkish Fathers

Authors : Hale Uyar Hazar, Dilan Gökay
Pages : 221-230
Doi:10.54189/hbd.1582218
View : 49 | Download : 36
Publication Date : 2025-08-22
Article Type : Research Paper
Abstract :Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and opinions about breastfeeding of Turkish fathers. Methods: The study was an analytical cross-sectional study conducted between January and June 2019 with 340 fathers at the obstetrics clinic of a Hospital in Aydın, Turkey. A Descriptive Information Form and a Checklist to Identify Knowledge and Opinions of Fathers about Breastfeeding were used in the collection of data. The analysis of the data was carried out with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, descriptive statistics, Z and χ² values, the Mann Whitney-U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman’s correlation analysis test (p<0,05). Results: The mean age of the fathers was 31.10±5.87 (min=17, max=54); the mean score for knowledge and opinions about breastfeeding was 22.20±3.33 (min=8, max=34). The highest score the fathers displayed in terms of correct answers to the questions on their knowledge and opinions was 91.8% in “When my wife starts to breastfeed, I do things to make her comfortable such as giving her pillows or a glass of water” and in terms of wrong answers, 73.2% in “Breastfeeding does not affect a mother’s work”. Accordingly, it was found that the correlation between the knowledge and opinions of fathers mean score and the father’s age was noticeably high (r=0.99, p=0.67), but that the same correlation was weak in terms of duration of marriage (r=0.26, p=0.629). Conclusion: The knowledge and opinions of fathers about breastfeeding score was at a moderate level, and age was found to have an effect on fathers’ knowledge and opinions on breastfeeding. Providing knowledge and opinions about breastfeeding of fathers through a ‘father-friendly breastfeeding approach’ could improve long-term exclusive breastfeeding rates, but more studies, perhaps multicenter and with longer follow-up periods, are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
Keywords : Babalar, Ebelik, Emzirme, Hemşirelik

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