Contribution of Family Nurses to the Success of Breastfeeding

Abstract

Introduction: Breast milk is extremely important for maternal and child health bringing indisputable benefits to mother, family and society. Health professionals, including nurses, play a key role in promoting and supporting breastfeeding with all their technical-scientific knowledge and proximity to the population. Aims: Understand the mothers' perspective regarding the contribution of health professionals to the success of breastfeeding. Methodology: Qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 women from a Family Health Unit in a Primary care setting who were mothers between December 2016 and December 2017. A content analysis of the data was performed with the support of web-based data analysis (webQDA) software. Results: The intervention of the family nurse in the context of pregnancy surveillance and child health consultations is distinguished, as well as in home visitation. The intervention of midwives in pre-natal courses and post-natal breastfeeding consultations also demonstrated to be relevant for breastfeeding success. Conclusion: As recommended by the World Health Organization and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, an effort is being made by health professionals, including nurses and midwives, for support of mothers and families in the decision, establishment and maintenance of the breastfeeding process, contributing positively to its success and establishing a follow-up to woman and family throughout the pregnancy-puerperal cycle.