Determining the risk facts associated to the precocious giving up of the exclusive maternal breastfeeding in infants less than 6 months old.

Abstract

Nowadays, exclusive maternal breastfeeding as main form of feeding the newborn and infant, has been affected by several reasons, the main of which are changes in the social patterns of life, the introduction of excellent substitutes of maternal breastfeeding in the market, and the lack of knowledge about the advantages of maternal breastfeeding for both, the mother and the child. A prospective study was carried out, about the usage of exclusive maternal breastfeeding in infants less than 6 months old entering the University Pediatric Hospital “Eliseo Noel Caamaño” of Matanzas in 2007. The main risk facts of precocious weaning are young mothers, unstable families, mothers that work or study, subjective lactation disorders, children born by caesarean operation, disinformation about maternal breastfeeding and lack of prenatal child care. We concluded that the first month was the moment of the biggest desertion (63 %); maternal age groups with higher incidence were the group of less than 20 years old (80 %) and the group of more than 30 years old (100 %); the main causes of breastfeeding abandoning were mothers who are students (100 %) or workers (67 %), maternal negative and subjective lactation disorders. More than half of mothers referring previous information abandoned breastfeeding during the first month after birth. We proved that there are not established local strategies (at the level of Health Areas or Medical Office), nor knowledge about risk facts among the population, or about the national strategies developed on the bases of International programs promoted by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.