Breastfeeding of preterm newborns in a neonate hospitalization unit

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the factors associated with breastfeeding of preterm infants at discharge. Method: Cross-sectional study with newborns with gestational age <37 weeks, admitted to a university hospital. Data obtained from the medical records of 180 participants, from August/2019 to August/2020. To assess an association between categorical variables, Pearson’s chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used. The significance level adopted was 5% (p ≤ 0.05). Results: Mean gestational age was 32.8 ± 2.7 weeks and mean birth weight was 1,890 grams ± 682 grams. During hospitalization, (n=166) 28.3% received predominantly breast milk. At discharge, (n=164) 84.1% received breast milk and, of these, 2.4% were exclusively breastfed. Breastfeeding at discharge was associated with gestational age ≥ 33.5 weeks, higher weight at birth, and shorter hospitalization. Conclusion: The study showed that during hospitalization, about a third of the participants were breastfed. However, at the time of discharge, there was a predominance of breastfeeding in most cases, and the associated factors were higher weight at birth and shorter hospital stay.