Professional’s concepts and knowledge of the primary health care services about breast feeding

Abstract

The objectives were to describe and analyze concepts and knowledge about breast-feeding from top-level professionals who work in primary health care services in the city of San Carlos-SP. Descriptive and exploratory study, whose data were obtained by semi-structured interviews with 54 professionals. To collect the conceptions we employed the qualitative method of thematic analysis. The data on the professionals’ knowledge were analyzed by simple frequency in the Epi-Info program. The conceptions comprehended four themes: breast-feeding means health for the child; breast-feeding is a bond between mother and child; breast-feeding is an act of low cost, and actions for breast-feeding in primary care services need to advance. The average percentage of accurate responses in matters of knowledge among the categories was: nurses, 92.2%; pediatricians, 88.1%; family practitioners, 86.7% and medical obstetricians and gynecologists, 63.6%. The highest percentage of success was about the use of pacifiers. The most frequent errors were about the duration and frequency of breastfeeding. The conceptions are dedicated to the benefits that this practice provides for a child’s health and for the positive social and emotional aspects. Nurses and pediatricians were the best performing categories in the test of knowledge.