The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Counseling on Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy of Pregnant Women

introduction: breastfeeding has an essential role in providing maternal and infant health and as a result the society health. breastfeeding self-efficacy is a powerful predictor of the duration of exclusive breastfeeding.objective: this study aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive-behavioral counseling during pregnancy on breastfeeding self-efficacy of pregnant women referring to comprehensive health centers in qazvin city, iran.materials and methods: this study is a randomized controlled clinical trial conducted on 120 pregnant women referred to health centers in qazvin city. the samples were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. the intervention group received 8 sessions of cognitive-behavioral group counseling during the third trimester of pregnancy. the breastfeeding selfefficacy scale questionnaire was used for surveying samples before and after the intervention. for analyzing data, t-test and chi-squared test were used. results: the two groups were not significantly different before the intervention in terms of demographic variables. also, the mean±sd breastfeeding selfefficacy scores in the control (47.55±5.92) and the intervention group (47.70±7.83) were not significantly different before counseling. after the intervention, the mean±sd breastfeeding self-efficacy score of the intervention group (57.49±5.62) was significantly higher than that of the control group (48.8±5.94) (p<0.001).conclusion: cognitive-behavioral counseling will increase breastfeeding self-efficacy of pregnant women. it is recommended that the results of the study be used to promote the empowerment of women in breastfeeding.