RESEARCH Counselling sessions incre exclusive breastfeeding: a

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articledecrease in infant morbidity and mortality has already been well documented. EBF in the first 6 months of life, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], protects against gastrointestinal infections [2-4], respiratory infections [5,6], allergies [7], and the rates have increased in the last decades, the prevalence of EBF in babies under 6 months of age is 41%, with a median duration of 54 days [9]. Studies in different countries have identified various factors associated with the early abandonment of EBF [10,11] among young mothers [12-17]. In Brazil, it was found that adolescent mothers had a 1.5 times greater risk of abandoning EBF before their babies were 6 months of age when compared with adult women [17]. Low socio-economic status [18-22], difficulties with breastfeeding like pain [23], sore nipple and mastitis [18,19], the presence of