Exclusive Breastfeeding Intention among Pregnant Women

Exclusive breastfeeding intention is a mother's intention to provide her baby only breast milk since the infant was born until at the age of 6 months. Intention in prenatal period is the direct affirmation of exclusive breastfeeding. This study aimed to find out the most dominant factor related to exclusive breastfeeding intention among pregnant women at a mother and child hospital in South Tangerang. A cross-sectional study design was conducted primarily. The samples were 143 pregnant women on their third trimester pregnancy selected by purposive sampling. Intention was measured by the Infant Feeding Intention scale questionnaire. Meanwhile, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were measured by the modified Breastfeeding Attrition Prediction Tool questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the multivariate logistic regression analysis. It was 61.5% mother had strong exclusive breastfeeding intention. Perceived behavioral control dominantly influenced the exclusive breastfeeding intention (p value = 0.007; Odds Ratio 3.030; 95% CI = 1.361-6.746). The other factors influencing intention were attitude, exposure to exclusive breastfeeding from social media, health workers' support, previous breastfeeding experience and mothers' occupation. A mother with high perceived behavioral control has three times more likely to have 'high exclusive breastfeeding intention' than those having the low ones.