Mother’s perception on breastfeeding support: a programmatic vulnerability perspective.

Abstract

This research aimed to understand the speeches of mothers who received support from the health service and to understand the determining factors that oriented their decision about feeding their babies aged six months old or younger. Also, we analyzed the vulnerability points that influenced the decision to not breastfeed. This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach with mothers who gave birth from 2002 to 2008 and received health attention from three Basic Health Centers, located in different areas in Londrina - PR. Bardin’s content analysis was used to analyze the speeches, and Ayres’ Vulnerability concept was applied as theoretical referral. Five categories emerged from content analysis: Maternal feelings related to breastfeeding; The family’s influence in exclusively breastfeeding; Breastfeeding difficulties; Information gathered in different health attention contexts; Support from health professionals. It is possible to identify positive and negative interventions from health professionals, which create vulnerabilities or hinder its reduction. The barriers to successful breastfeeding may be reachable through professional interventions created as an alternate solution, implementing technical and scientific knowledge. Our attitudes must be thought in order to reduce vulnerabilities and therefore reach higher exclusive breastfeeding rates.