assessment of breastfeeding education by face to face and small-group education methods in mothers’ self-efficacy in kazeroun health centers in 2015

Background: education is a process beginning with informing, followed by attitude-making and finally leading to appropriate behavior and performance in trainees. breastfeeding self-efficacy, as a term, is originated from the social cognitive theory structures of bandura. this theory refers to one’s beliefs and confidence in her/his ability to perform health behaviors like exclusive and successful breastfeeding. methods: in this study, 270 pregnant women with gestational age over 30 weeks were selected among those referring to health centers by cluster sampling method. the subjects were randomly divided into 3 groups. one group was considered as the control group and the two other groups were educated through either face to face or small-group methods. data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, performance assessment check list, and breastfeeding self-efficacy questionnaire. the collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests in spss. results: data analysis on breastfeeding self-efficacy showed that there was no significant difference between 3 groups before training. the mean scores of women attending face to face and small-group education were 2.89 and 2.88, which increased to 4.73 and 4.18, respectively. there was a significant difference between the intervention groups after education (p < 0.001). self-efficacy mean scores after delivery showed that face to face education is more efficient. the results showed that there was a significant association between self-efficacy and performance in mothers (p < 0.001). conclusions: face to face education method has positive effects on infant feeding pattern, mother performance, breastfeeding satisfaction and beliefs as well as self-efficacy.