Support to breastfeeding in a basic health area; prevalence and related socioeconomic factors

Introduction: the prenatal visit was launched in order to promote and support breastfeeding in our population. It takes place in the third trimester of pregnancy and is carried out by pediatricians. Our objective was to assess the duration of breastfeeding in our environment and the factors related to improving mother-child health.

Material and methods: prospective study through an interview carried out during the well child visits at 6 and 15 months for a period of two years. We had the cooperation of pediatric nurses, midwives and outer-group support “Mamare Castelló”.

Results: we found a 40% prevalence of full breastfeeding at 6 months and continued breastfeeding of 16% at 15 months. The factors with statistical significance against breastfeeding in the first month of life, that continue at 6th months of life are: mother who smoked, mother not breastfed herself, birth weight less than 2500 g, first breastfeeding after 4 hours of life and provide glucose solution in the Maternity. Immigrant mothers initiate breastfeeding more often but at the sixth month there are no differences with the Spanish mothers.

Conclusion: the interventions in primary care to promote breastfeeding achieve positive outcomes for the health of the population but require greater efforts and coordination to move in the direction proposed by BFHI for hospitals and health centres.