Assessment of infant feeding and some maternal related factors in Tehranian mothers, Iran

The purpose of this study was to assess infant feeding and some maternal related factors in Tehranian mothers, 2008.
In this cross sectional study 300 women with children aged between 12 to 24 months from six urban public health centers in Tehran were randomly selected and interviewed. Information regarding participants' demographics, type of delivery and practices towards infants feeding was collected.
Results showed that 70% of mothers were full breast feeders up to 4 months and only 28% of them did so up to 6 months. The average period of mixed breastfeeding in the first year was 10.1±3.7 months. In the most of infants supplementary feeding was started in 6 months (72.5%) and just in 8% of them it was started after 6 months. Rate of caesarian delivery was 79% in our population. The average period of time for starting breastfeeding after delivery was 2.7±5.01 hours and 4.9±9.1 hours in women who had caesarian delivery and who had vaginal delivery respectively (P=0.04).Women who had vaginal delivery were significantly more likely to continue breastfeeding more than one year, 11.6±1.8 months, compared to women who had caesarian delivery, 9.6±3.95 months (P=0.002).There were not any significant relationship between mothers age and education with their behaviors about breastfeeding. 
The study showed that the rate of full breastfeeding in Tehranian women is low. In current study caesarian delivery was one of the effective factors related to less breastfeeding, which is very prevalent in assessed community.