Abstract
The aim of the present study is to analyze breastfeeding with children from the city of Plovdiv. Material and methods: The initial information was collected in the month of June 2005 through a retrospective passive survey conducted with 200 mothers whose children attended 2 day care centers and 2 kindergartens in the city of Plovdiv. The survey questionnaire formulated by the research team included two sets of questions: Relating to the mother and relating to the child. Results: At the time of giving birth to the children participating in the survey, the greatest relative share was of mothers at the age of 24 to 30 (64.21%), followed by those at the age of 31-35 - 8.95%. According to their level of education, the highest percentage is of mothers with secondary (55.7%) and higher (41.58%) education; there are no mothers with elementary education, and those without any school attendance are 1.58%. Only 4 (2.10%) of the surveyed women did not breastfeed their children at all. 68.95% of the surveyed women claim that they do not know anything about the `exclusive breastfeeding` method which is recommended by WHO. The most frequent reason for the mothers to cease breastfeeding was insufficiency of breast milk - in 26.84% of the cases, followed by `Others` - 11.5%, `˜Health problems of the mothers` - 3.16%, `˜The infant consistently did not gain enough weight` - 1.05%, etc. The average anthropometric indicators of the children (both at the time of birth, and the current readings) correspond to Bulgarian standards. Conclusions: 1.Almost all mothers taking part in the survey (97.89%) wanted to and started to breastfeed their infants. The main reason for the discontinuance of breastfeeding is the insufficient amount of their breast milk. 2. The relative share of the mothers who did not feel prepared for breastfeeding is large. 3. There is evidence that the medical workers in the birth preparation centers have unsatisfactory knowledge of the current recommendations of the WHO in the sphere of breastfeeding. 4. The `exclusive breastfeeding` method is not sufficiently well-known and it is not applied. Scripta Scientifica Medica 2009; 41(1): 21-24.
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