In-depth interviews with mothers
We conducted 22 in-depth interviews with mothers to explore the facilitators and barriers of breastfeeding. Mothers were asked to describe their feeding experience since they delivered the child. The interview’s guidelines were about what kind of food they feed to the child since birth, how they selected the feeding method, what made them select or change, their perception of the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding, challenges they meet during breastfeeding, and kind of supports they received during breastfeeding. The belief and practices on post-birth rituals to infant feeding which included solid food introduced were also asked.Mothers who visited the two hospitals involved in the study were invited to participate in the interviews. To capture the widest range of perspectives possible, mothers were screened using a set of questions on the age of the child (less than one or more than 1 year old), experience with breastfeeding (exclusive breastfeeding or mixed with formula feeding), and mode of delivery (vaginal or cesarean while they waited for a health check-up in the hospital. Mothers were selected to ensure a variety of socio-economic groups and experiences and were invited for in-depth interviews after finishing their health check-ups. Interviews were undertaken either in the hospitals or the cafeteria nearby, the location chosen by the mothers. Each in-depth interview lasted 45–60 minutes. Selection processes and interviews were conducted by a researcher who had public health background and was experienced in qualitative study. After every four to five interviews, the researcher summarized the main themes and discussed with the team for selecting new mothers and revising questions’ guidelines until the information was saturated.