Exclusive breastfeeding among professionals in a Family Healthcare Program

Breastfeeding is considered an important strategy for survival in infancy. Consequently, strategies have been developed mainly directed towards health professionals. The scope of the study was to identify the frequency and duration of breastfeeding among professionals of a Family Health Program in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. It is a transversal descriptive study conducted between September and November 2006 involving 37 workers and mothers of under-five's in the Family Health Program of the IV Sanitary Health District of Recife. Of the 37 professionals, two refused to participate and were therefore excluded, meaning that 35 were effectively interviewed. The mean duration of breastfeeding was four months. Comparing the workers who breastfed exclusively with those that did not, it was found that mothers who breastfed exclusively for > 4 months, had no difficulties with breastfeeding (p=0.027). A tendency of statistical significance was found in relation to the use of pacifiers among children whose mothers did not breastfeed exclusively (p=0.051). The difficulties found during breastfeeding among the workers of the Family Health Program of the IV Sanitary Health District and the use of pacifiers among their children are problems that deserve attention, due to the fact that they represent a group that serves as a model for the community.