Aleitamento Materno na Adolescência: a Importância da Orientação para Prevenir o Desmame Precoce

Resumo

Palavras-chave: Adolescente. Intervenção Médica Precoce. Aleitamento Materno. Desmame.

Abstract

The exclusive breastfeeding of a child is recommended by government agencies up to six months. Its own practice includes a range of benefits to nursing and the baby. However, significant part of lactating women stop breastfeeding before four months. This research aims to analyze the factors that contribute to the early weaning of the adolescent women’s newborn  and perform interventions that enable the breastfeeding maintenance. It is a longitudinal prospective interventional study, performed by medical students through home visits with the application of eight semi-structured questionnaires, during two periods: the first directed to lactating adolescents whose children were up to fifteen days old and the second, third and fourth with a fortnightly interval. The others were applied monthly and the last when the infant was six months old. The intervention, which consisted of clarifying the  breastfeeding doubts and difficulties, was individual to each participant during the visits. Based on descriptive qualitative methodology, 19 women participated in the study. The main factors that influenced the low-breastfeeding outcome of exclusive breastfeeding by mothers were occupation, family influence and health professionals. At the end of the intervention period, six were mixed breastfeeding, five predominant breastfeeding, four exclusive breastfeeding and four mothers stopped breastfeeding. The follow-up and intervention were effective to avoid premature weaning, with mixed and predominant  breastfeeding patterns being the most prevailing in this study.

Keywords: Adolescent. Early Medical Intervention. Breastfeeding. Weaning.