Breastfeeding and mHealth technologies: analysis of mobile applications for tablets and smartphones

Abstract

The aims of this study were: to identify mobile applications about breastfeeding in Portuguese and to analyzethe content of these applications, based on official recommendations. Thisis a cross-sectional and descriptive studywhich investigatedthe applicationsin the virtual storesPlay Store and Apple Store. Twelve applicationswere analyzed. All of them presented the chronometer function, which disagreeswith the free demand recommendation. The most used figures by the applicationswere animated cartoons with the use of pacifiers and bottles (66.7%/n=8), mammal animals relating them to human nutrition (16.7%/n=2) and photos produced in studios (8.3%/n=1). Despite the application’s support to breastfeeding, some of the information available iscontrary to the official recommendations and does not represent the reality of the breastfeeding woman.