This study is dealt with maternal knowledge, attitude and practices of breastfeeding.rnThree groups of mothers representing the Guraghe, Oromo and Wolayta culturalrnbackgrounds in Shashemene town were involved. Various item-types that were believedrnto generate the required data were constructed and administered. The analyses employedrndescriptive/qualitative, proportional, comparative and few correlational procedures.rnThe findings reveal that the mother groups are generally aware of the need tornbreastfeed infants with respect to the medical, physical, and cognitive aspects ofrndevelopment. But maternal knowledge concerning the role of breastfeeding forrnpsychosocial development was very low. The results of attitude measures revealed thernpossession of differing perceptions towards the specific sub-categories, though therngeneral perception appears positive.rnAs to the practical aspects of breastfeeding, both similarities and differences tornvarying degrees were observed among the participants. Colustrums treatment,rnbreastfeeding initiation time, and occasions showed significant variation among therngroups while variables such as exclusive breastfeeding duration and intentions ofrnbreastfeeding did not reveal significant difference.rnAnalysis of the relationship between informants' sociodemographic variables likerneducation, income, & parity and breastfeeding revealed that the relationship is notrnstatistically significant.rnLow knowledge level in the psychosocial domains of breastfeeding, the tendencyrnof some respondents to hold negative attitude concerning the physical and cultural beliefrncomponents, and some of the undesirable practices like delayed initiation feedingrnresponse based on mother's leisure time, and discard of colostrums reported by a numberrnof subjects are among the notable results that imply for early culture-sensitive maternalrneducation, especially for expectant urban mothers.