Promotion, encouragement and support of breastfeeding in a high-risk maternity

Abstract

The practice of breastfeeding brings immense benefits to the mother and child, but not more than 39% of children worldwide are exclusively breastfed for the first six months. Thus, the study aimed to analyze the promotion, encouragement and support for breastfeeding in maternity high risk in the city of Aracaju-SE, with allowance in the technical material 'Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding' Initiative Baby Friendly Hospital. This is a cross-sectional study among women, whose data collection instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire administered to the mothers who were high and who had no contraindication to perform breastfeeding. We evaluated the steps 4-10 of said material and the results showed that only the fulfillment of Step 7, regarding rooming, was in full compliance with the recommendations. Step 9 showed good results on not offer bottle to breastfed babies (91.7%), however, the use of pacifiers showed undesired prevalence (36.3%). The less satisfactory results were found in Steps 4, 6 and 10 referring to skin contact in the first hour of life, do not offer newborn food or drink other than breast milk of mothers and referral to support groups will breastfeeding after discharge, respectively. Thus, we see the need to train health professionals on appropriate guidelines on breastfeeding to mothers, since the promotion, encouragement and support for breastfeeding are critical for mothers and children.