Factors Influencing Initiation of Successful Exclusive Breastfeeding in Maternity Departments of Riga, Latvia

  • Valērija Ivanovska (Speaker)
  • Miltiņa, I. (Co-author)
  • Arta Bērziņa (Co-author)

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Poster presentation

Description

Breast milk is an ideal nutrition for the growth, development of newborns and has many health benefits. The WHO recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfeed for at least six months. Worldwide, about 800,000 newborn deaths have been linked to the late initiation of breastfeeding and lack of exclusive breastfeeding. Although exclusive breastfeeding is important for the health of mother, child, however, there are still gaps in the process of promoting exclusive breastfeeding. Therefore, it is crucial to understand what problems mothers face during the early lactation period.. This is an ongoing cross-sectional study conducted December 2022 – March 2023, based on questionnaire about socioeconomic situation, communication experience in OD, problems that are associated with exclusive breastfeeding. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee. The data were processed using IBM SPSS Statistics-27, comparing cases in different age-groups and different hospitals. . 75% of women who evaluated their breastfeeding experience at the maternity department as unsatisfactory weren’t informed enough about breastfeeding. Among women who had c-section 50%were well supported at the initiation of breastfeeding, while after vaginal birth – 63,2% were well supported. 25% of c-section mothers vs 5,3% of vaginal birth mothers were recommended to start milk formula without helping with breastfeeding. About 87% of women who were well informed about breastfeeding during pregnancy had a very good experience with breastfeeding initiation. The most common problem that affected initiation of breastfeeding was related to physical discomfort in 69% of cases. . The results show interaction between successful communication and initiation of breastfeeding. We want to develop better methods for eliminating disturbing factors. Questionnaire data showed that there is a problem in information sphere and women are not fully familiar with basic principles of breastfeeding. We plan to create informative materials that will be useful both for pregnant women and medical practitioner.
Period29 Mar 2023
Event titleRSU International Research Conference 2023: Knowledge for Use in Practice
Event typeConference
OrganiserRīga Stradiņš University
LocationRiga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational

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