Dietetic interns and internship directors have positive attitudes toward breastfeeding and interns intend to support and promote breastfeeding in their future practice

The purpose of this study was to assess the antecedents of behavioral intention toward providing breastfeeding support by dietetic interns and to evaluate breastfeeding attitudes of internship directors. Directors, n = 239, were emailed to request their input in an online survey and to forward it to their interns. A total of 119 (49.8%) directors and 440 interns participated. Both interns and directors had positive breastfeeding attitudes, 70.9 ± 6.9 and 69.7 ± 8.2, respectively, (85‐point scale) with no difference between groups (p = 0.1268). Interns showed strong knowledge and favorable intentions with scores of 11.7 ± 1.6 (14‐point scale) and 49.0 ± 10.2 (60‐point scale), respectively. High exposure to breastfeeding was found in 96% of interns. Attitude, knowledge, parental status, and internship type had positive relationships with intention to support breastfeeding (p < 0.05). Internship type was a significant factor (p < 0.0001) associated with attitude; those in a health department/community program had highest attitude scores (76.4 ± 5.1). More interns, 92.2%, agreed that it is important to include breastfeeding training in the internship, than directors, 78.6% (p < 0.0001). This research suggests that dietetic interns have strong intentions to promote and support breastfeeding. The School of Family and Consumer Sciences at BGSU supported this research.