Efectos de la lactancia materna

Abstract

The aim of my research project was to understand the conditioning factors that influence mothers’ child feeding practices, before and after childbirth, and the variables that affect them. I administered 208 questionnaires to puerperant women who gave birth to babies in maternity wards in Ragusa and Modica: the first has been administered on the day of discharge from the hospital, the second after three months and the third after six months after child’s birth. From the data analysis it has emerged that right information is very important for mother feeding benefits and for practical procedures it takes place. Data analysis also showed the importance of attending a childbirth preparation class: women who decide to attend it breast-feed more than the women who don’t. Moreover, the respect of WHO and UNICEF recommendations on breastfeeding facilitates it: women who have a skin to skin contact and who breastfeed the newborn immediately after birth, who adopt rooming in, who have a natural childbirth and who are supported in breastfeeding rather than bottle-feeding by the medical staff, breast-feed in higher percentage. After childbirth, the family cooperation in doing the housework and the positive support of everybody help mother breastfeeding: above all, partners and parents have effects on mothers’ behavior; both in positive and in negative. The most significant fact deals with the advice from pediatrician about pursuing in breastfeeding: women who have been supported by pediatrician breast-feed five times more than women who haven’t. Returning to work seems to be one of the root cause of the abandonment of breastfeeding, but most mothers decide to bottle-feed for suspected hypogalatia. Actually, just 5% of people really suffer from it. I think that receiving correct information on how breastfeeding works could solve the problem. It is necessary to work together to establish a real “culture for breastfeeding” in our society.