[Breast-feeding]

Abstract

In order to promote maternal lactation it is necessary to know what problems prevent it. With this in mind, a survey of 202 mothers who had children between the first of October and the end of November in 1992 was conducted. 91.5% of these mothers began normal lactation, yet 30.7% were incapable of giving milk after one month. A high frequency of lactating failure correlated with women from disadvantaged income groups. Factors that influenced the duration and difficulty of breast feeding were: lactating problems with the previous child, family opinions, rigid feeding schedules, excessive maternal preoccupation, working out of the home. Once the problems were recognized, a second objective of this study was to design a plan that would create positive attitudes toward maintaining natural lactation. After putting this plan to work, a three month study showed that 70.2% of the mothers in a experimental group continued to breast feed, whereas only 39.5% of the control group did. After four months 55% of the variable group was still nursing their children, while the control group fell to 30.2%.