Leanness Frequency and Correlation Wiith Breastfeeding Among Women Abstrac

Ojectives: This research was conducted to determine leanness frequency and correlation withbreastfeeding among women. Material and methods: The research was conducted as descriptive and cross-sectional, study between February and July 2010 at vaccination outpatient. 327 women were participated in the study. Data was collected by Participant Information Form. Student’s t-test, c² and Fisher’s Exact test were used for data analysis. Results: The prevalence of leanness among women was found as 15.9 %. Lean women’ Postpartum breastfeeding rate (84.6 %) was found lower than women’ who are not underweight (95.7 %) (p 0.05). It was found that women with normal range BMI (87.5 %) breastfeeding their babies longer time than lean women (60 %) and lean women (84.6 %) more preferring to feed their babies with mixed foods compared to women with normal BMI (52 %) (p 0.05). It was also determined that low BMI women tend to start supplementary food earlier than women with normal range BMI for their babies. (p 0.05). Conclusions: These findings reveal that leanness effects breastfeeding negatively that lean women need more health care services during breastfeeding.