[Importance of an educational intervention: Knowledge, attitudes and practices on breastfeeding].

Abstract

Background: Although the benefits of breastfeeding are well known, it has been observed that some mothers abandon it, sometimes due to a lack of training in this area. It is unknown whether the level of breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes and practices increase after an educational intervention.

Objective: To determine the knowledge, attitudes and breastfeeding practices of mothers of children under 1 year of age before and after an educational intervention.

Material and methods: Quasi-experimental, analytical and longitudinal study. It included 216 mothers with children under 12 months of age; it excluded those with medical contraindications to breastfeeding; those that did not complete the surveys were eliminated. Sociodemographic data were collected. Medians of knowledge, attitudes and practices in breastfeeding before and after the educational intervention were compared with the Wilcoxon test.

Results: High school education (54.6%), married marital status (48.7%), housewife occupation (66.2%) and worker socioeconomic level (61.6%) predominated. After the educational intervention, 213 mothers (98.6%) obtained a good level of knowledge, 216 (100%) acquired a good attitude, and 203 of them (94%) achieved good practices about breastfeeding. There were statistically significant differences between the medians of knowledge (p < 0.0001), attitudes (p < 0.0001) and practices (p = 0.014) before and after the educational intervention on breastfeeding, all of which increased their levels.

Conclusions: There was a change in the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices in breastfeeding before and after the educational intervention.