Abstract:
It is recommended that all mothers breastfeed their children exclusively at least for the first 6 months, however,
in Ethiopia only one in three children aged 4-5 months were breastfed exclusively. To this end study on individual and
contextual factors that may affect the intention of pregnant women to exclusive breast-feeding is scarce in Ethiopia and study
area in particular. It is timely and appropriate to study pregnant women’s behavioral intention to exclusive breast-feeding for
the smooth implementation. The Objective the study was to assess intention of exclusive breast feeding among pregnant
women in Medebay Zana District, North West of Tigray, North Ethiopia. Community based cross sectional study was
conducted among sampled (n=709) pregnant women from January 25_ Februaray15, 2012.The behavioral intention question
contained six domains on exclusive breast feeding: knowledge, future intention, attitude, behavioral beliefs, subjective norm,
normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control, and control beliefs and power of control. Data was entered and analyzed
using SPSS version 20.0 software. Relationships among the major variables were described by correlation coefficients.
Multiple linear regressions were used to identify variables, which independently contributed for intention to exclusive breast
feed. Pregnant women’s attitude was found to be the most significant (P< 0.05) predictor of intention to exclusive breast
feeding (22.2%). Subjective norms (4.5%) and perceived behavioral control (2.5%) explained the independent variables
respectively. Previous breastfeeding experience and being a housewife were found to be an external factor, made a significant
(P < 0.05) contribution to theory of planed behavior. so Information education communication and Behavioral change
Communication should focus on addressing the attitude, perceived behavioral control and Subjective norm.
