the relationship between emotional intelligence (ei) and breastfeeding success in lactating mothers

introduction: breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to promote children&apos;s health. the purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and success of breastfeeding. materials and methods: in a cross-sectional study in referring of multiple health centers in shiraz, sample of 150 mothers with children aged one to three 3 years were selected using convenience sampling method and divided to breast fed and formula fed children groups, they obtained bar-on and demographic questionnaire .data were analyzed by spss software and significant level for all tests was considered as 5%. results: mean age of mothers was 28.8±4.3 and the mean age of children was 19.80±5.8 years in breast fed and  18.98±6.25 in formula fed infants (p=0.406)   ; 45.3% of them were high school graduates or low literate, and the rest of them were college educated. 71.3% of the women were housewives and most of them were nulliparous. 71.3% of all women had cesarean delivery. the mean duration of breastfeeding in children  were 14.80±4.35 month in breast fed and  3.98±1.25 month in formula fed infants (p<0.001) . in terms of the average age, education and child birth rank, the two groups were not significantly different. emotional intelligence in the group of lactating mothers was significantly higher than non-lactating mothers (347 versus 296; p<0.001). conclusion: mothers who success in breastfeeding have higher eq than non-lactating mothers. since it is possible to identify and promote eq, therefore, we can help to breastfeeding success of mothers.