Abstract

GORRITA PEREZ, Remigio Rafael; BRITO LINARES, Daily; RAVELO RODRIGUEZ, Yenisley  and  RUIZ HERNANDEZ, Elisa. Planned and wanted pregnancy, early breastfeeding, aptitudes for and mother's knowledge about breastfeeding. Rev Cubana Pediatr [online]. 2014, vol.86, n.3, pp.289-297. ISSN 0034-7531.

Introduction: WHO and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and as supplement for two years at least; however, the final results are not the expected ones. Objective: to evaluate the relationship between planned pregnancy, breastfeeding of previous children, aptitudes for breastfeeding and mother's knowledge about this in the third-trimester pregnant women from "Luis Augusto Turcios Lima" and "Martires del 9 de Abril" polyclinics located in San Jose de las Lajas municipality, Mayabeque province. Methods: a cross-sectional analytical study was carried out from March 2010 through March 2011. One hundred and ninety two women in their third trimester of pregnancy, who met the inclusion criteria, provided information about their early children and their breastfeeding, planning, desires to be pregnant, breastfeeding aptitudes and knowledge. Twenty two questions were posed and then evaluated by a scoring system set for these purposes. Results: over half of mothers regarded themselves as being apt for breastfeeding and they assured that they had the required knowledge for that, but less than one fifth did show it. The pregnant women who scored highest in the questionnaire were those having a child, those having exclusively breastfed for 4 to 6 months and those who had planned and desired their pregnancy. Conclusions: although the majority of pregnant women considered that they were ready for breastfeeding, they did not show adequate knowledge to succeed in this task.

Keywords : breastfeeding; level of knowledge; desired pregnancy; planned pregnancy; aptitude for breastfeeding; previous breastfeeding.

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