Abstract

GORRITA PEREZ, Remigio Rafael; RAVELO RODRIGUEZ, Yenisley; RUIZ HERNANDEZ, Elisa  and  BRITO HERRERA, Belkis. Information on breast feeding found in pregnant women in their third trimester of gestation. Rev Cubana Pediatr [online]. 2012, vol.84, n.4, pp.357-367. ISSN 0034-7531.

Introduction: the virtues of breast feeding are worldwide known. Although the females are physiologically fitted for breastfeeding their children and a high number of international health organizations have designed policies to adequately promote this practice, there are still many obstacles that hinder its successful adoption and the long-term results are unsatisfactory. Objective: to evaluate the information that the pregnant women in their third trimester of gestation had about breastfeeding. They were all tended in "Martires del 9 de Abril" polyclinic in San Jose de las Lajas municipality. Methods: a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to find out the level of information about breastfeeding in 114 pregnant women in their third trimester of pregnancy from "Martires del 9 de Abril" polyclinics in San Jose de las Lajas. Their individual and family health antecedents were assessed in addition to the administration of a 22-question inquiry that was qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated. Results: just one fifth of the participating pregnant females were well-informed about breastfeeding, although the majority of them had assumed to be so. More than half of the 17 screened aspects were inadequate in over 50 % of the participants. The most common mistakes included the best time to give water to a child under exclusive breastfeeding, when to provide another type of food, how long the breastfeeding should be kept, what food the mother should eat, the rotation and cleaning of the breasts, and the difficulties for the mother to breastfeed her child. Conclusions: a high number of pregnant women showed lack of appropriate knowledge or adopted wrong attitudes with respect to exclusive breastfeeding, although they believed they were really proficient in this subject. In addition to knowledge about breastfeeding, other aspects affecting its successful adoption must be addressed.

Keywords : breastfeeding; pregnant women; level of knowledge about breastfeeding.

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