Prevalence and factors associated with breastfeeding in brazil between the years 1998 and 2013: a systematic review

Abstract

The study aimed to compare the prevalence and the determinants of breastfeeding in different cities and states in Brazil, based on researches which used similar methodology to the one proposed by the Breastfeeding and Municipalities Project. To this end, we performed a systematic review and a search for articles in the Lilacs, SciELO, Cochrane, Bdenf, Medline and PubMed through the keywords breastfeeding/aleitamento materno, prevalence/prevalência, indicators/indicadores, cross-sectional studies/estudos transversais, nutrition surveys/inquéritos nutricionais, diet surveys/inquéritos alimentares and Brazil/Brasil, in the period between 1998 and 2013. Twenty-seven articles were selected, 8 of which presented the prevalence of breastfeeding in children under one year of age, 11 in children under four months, 10 in children under six months, 07 in children under four and six months and 04 articles of the temporal trends of breastfeeding. The articles analyzed the association between breastfeeding and maternal variables such as age, education, occupation, parity, mode of delivery, number of prenatal visits, income, and maternity leave. Regarding the variables of the infant, the most studied factors were: pacifier use, birth weight, birth in institutions participating in the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, bottle feeding, introduction of other milk and tea, breastfeeding in the first 24 hours of life and sex. The results indicate the need for evaluation and understanding about the effectiveness of existing actions, and the creation of strategies to encourage and support breastfeeding, especially to first-time mothers, teenagers, worker mothers and the ones with difficulties handling breastfeeding initiation.