Introduction:

breastfeeding in current societies is a very complex task. Objective: to characterize breastfeeding in the Family Doctor´s Office Nr. 16 of the Policlinic ¨Manuel Pity Fajardo¨, municipality of Cardenas. Materials and methods: a cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study was carried out. The universe was composed by 68 mothers of born-alive children belonging to that health area in the period January 2011-December 2015. The studied variables were age, scholarship, job, breastfeeding time, factors causing breastfeeding delay, family planning, and knowledge on breastfeeding. Data were gathered from the individual and family records, from the births´ register of the Policlinic Statistics Department, from the Comprehensive Analysis of Health Situation, enquire and observation.

Results:

the 25-29-years-old age group predominated among mothers of born-alive children (41.7 %). 77.9 % had senior high school scholarship, and 47.0 % were workers. 47.5 % of them breastfeed 1-3 months. Not having enough breast milk (44.1 %), a non-planed pregnancy (50.0 %), and not having the adequate knowledge (58.8 %) influenced in breastfeeding delay.

Conclusions:

a high percent of mothers breastfeed just during the first three months of life; the most common cause of breastfeeding delay was not having enough breast milk. There it was a prevalence of non-adequate knowledge on maternal breastfeeding.

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