Mothers’ perceptions of the importance of breastfeeding and difficulties encountered in the process of breastfeeding

Abstract

Background: The breastfeeding (BF) offers proven benefits to both mother and baby. Objective: To understand the perceptions of mothers about the importance of breastfeeding and to identify the main difficulties of breastfeeding and/or its maintenance. Methodology: Cross-sectional, descriptive study of quantitative nature with 50 mothers of children registered in 2 primary health units of Coari-Amazonas, Brazil. A semi-structured interview script was used. The analysis was performed using the Excel 2010 software and IBM SPSS Statistics, version 23.0. Results: The perceptions of mothers about BF were positive, 40 (80%) described the benefits to the mother correctly, and 42 (84%) to the child, 23 (46%) reported difficulties in the process of breastfeeding, in which the most frequent were the breast engorgement and lesions of the nipple (13; 56.5%). Conclusion: The mothers demonstrated knowledge about the importance of breastfeeding. Breast engorgement and lesions of the nipple were the most frequently reported difficulties, which may be re-versed through the correct orientation by health professionals.