title: Knowledge level, attitude and own experience of health professionals about breastfeeding and breast milk in a city of Turkey: Cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Worldwide consensus about breastfeeding is that the infant should exclusively be breastfed until six months of life. Despite this, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of age is low in so many countries including Turkey. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, the attitudes and the own experiences of health professionals about breastfeeding and breast milk, in a metropolitan city in Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed between July 2012 and December 2013. Study subjects included healthprofessionals working in the university hospitals, research and training hospitals, public and private hospitals; child, adolescent, women and reproductive health services centers, family health centers, and community health centers located in Ankara. A questionnaire was used to collect data. SPSS 11.5 package program was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 715 people participated in this study. From those who had children themselves 3.4% (n= 16) had not breastfed their babies at all, and 7.6% (n= 36) had breastfed their baby until second year of age. It was found that 28.4% of the participants had poor, 43.1% had average and 28.5% had good knowledge level about breastfeeding and breast milk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study reflects the lack of knowledge about breastfeeding and breast milk among the health professionals in Turkey. Although a great majority of participants agree the recommendation of WHO about the duration ofbreastfeeding, the percentage ofbreastfeeding of health care professionals during recommended period was very low.
authors.affiliation: Ankara Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Family Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baydar Artantas
authors.affiliation: Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Turkey.
authors.forename: Burcu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kayhan Tetis
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health, Turkey.
authors.forename: Melek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kılıc
authors.forename: İrep
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Karatas Eray
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Public Health, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nazan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cetin
authors.affiliation: Zekai Tahir Training and Research Hospital.
authors.forename: Sinem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Güney
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Public Health, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Dogan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Akdogan
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Public Health, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Umut
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Domad
authors.affiliation: Yildmm Beyazit University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yusuf
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ustu
authors.affiliation: Yildmm Beyazit University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ugurlu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001942:Breast Feeding; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008895:Milk, Human; D014421:Turkey; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Breast milk; Breastfeeding; Health care professionals; Turkey