Educational Strategy for Breastfeeding Maintenance During the COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Period in Popayán

Introduction: The scientific literature indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted an important impact on delivery care and breastfeeding, such as abandoning practices like skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding initiation, which offer major benefits for maternal-child health. Objective: To know the experiences undergone by mothers of hospitalized breastfeeding infants regarding educational strategies for breastfeeding maintenance during the COVID-19 post-pandemic period. Materials and methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. The population was comprised of 39 mothers of newborns hospitalized in the neonatal unit of the Susana López de Valencia hospital, Popayán (Cauca). Semi-structured interviews and a discussion group consisting of randomly selected mothers who did not know each other were employed as techniques to obtain the information. The semi-structured interviews eased an in-depth search for information until reaching data saturation. Results: Five categories emerged from the analysis: 1) The mothers’ knowledge about breastfeeding; 2) Barriers identified by the mothers in the educational process; 3) Nurses’ willingness to provide support, listen and help; 4) The best strategy concerning breastfeeding education; and 5) The pandemic as a factor that increases fear and apprehension during hospitalization of a child. Conclusions: Knowing the experiences undergone by mothers of hospitalized children regarding breastfeeding allows us to get closer to proposing an educational strategy that includes their needs, previous knowledge, facilitating elements and barriers, to maintain breastfeeding during hospitalization.