Objective: The ideal nourishment for newborns with low birth-weight is breast milk. The purpose of the study
was to determine the effect of natural-feeding education given to mothers of low-birth-weight infants, on the
mothers’ breast-feeding self-efficacy level, breast-feeding success, and the growth of the infants.
Methods: The study was conducted in a quasi-experimental way. The study group consisted of a total of 85
low-birth-weight infants and their mothers who had been treated in the neonatal clinics of two hospitals. The
mothers included in the test group were given breast-feeding education for half an hour per day, during the
first 5 days of their hospitalization. Home visits were carried out at the homes of the participants from both
the test and control groups, until the infants reached 6 months of age. For collecting data, the following forms
were used: Personal Information Form, Breast-feeding Self-Efficacy Form, LATCH Breast-feeding Assessment
Tool, and Anthropometric Measurements Form. For analyzing the collected data, percentage, arithmetic mean,
standard deviation, and chi-square we used, and, in independent groups, t-tests were employed.
Findings: It was determined that natural-feeding education given to the mothers increases their breastfeeding
self-efficacy levels and success in breast-feeding (P<0.05). It was found that in the test group, the rate
of feeding the infants exclusively with breast milk is higher in comparison with the control group (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Results of the study indicate that natural-feeding education increases breast-feeding self-efficacy
levels, breast-feeding success, and the breast-feeding duration.