Introduction:

breastfeeding is the ideal and superior form of nutrition for full-term newborns and exclusively up to 6 months of age.

Objective:

to characterize the factors that are related to the early abandonment of exclusive breastfeeding.

Methods:

an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in 27 mothers who abandoned exclusive breastfeeding before the baby was 6 months old. A questionnaire was designed to collect the information that analyzed the following variables: maternal age, schooling, occupation, marital status, parity, history of early weaning, type of delivery and reasons why breastfeeding was abandoned, techniques of descriptive statistics: absolute and relative frequency (number and percentage) as summary measures.

Results:

the age group of 15 to 19 years of the mothers studied was the most representative with 40.7% and the level of higher education with 48.1%, 55.6% of the mothers were single and the same percentage of students, 66.6% of the mothers were nulliparous and multiparous with a history of early weaning prevailed, joining the study, the feeling of lack of milk production and mastalgia were some of the causes referred by the respondents.

Conclusions:

maternal age, history of previous early weaning, incorporation into student life, feeling of lack of milk production, mastalgia and cracks in the nipples were the main factors related to the abandonment of breastfeeding.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )