According to Melanie Kornides and Panagiota Kitsantas in the Journal of Child Health Care
According to Melanie Kornides and Panagiota Kitsantas in the Journal of Child Health Care, 2003, they did a research on how prenatal exposure to breastfeeding information from various media sources, a mother`s knowledge on the benefits of breastfeeding, family and friends support affect a mother`s decision to breastfeed. Based on their findings, approximately 85% of the women choose breastfeeding as their initial feeding method. At two months, 63.8% continued breastfeeding, while only 38.1% breastfed preferentially. Mothers with more knowledge about breastfeeding benefits were more likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding and more likely to breastfeed at two months than those with lower levels of knowledge. Women whose families supported exclusive breastfeeding were more likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding. Doctors who encouraged mothers to breastfeed also increased the probability of a woman to initiate breastfeeding. Thus, it is important how prenatal exposure to breastfeeding can influence the will to breastfeed among mothers.
