Authors

1Manuel Enrique Romero Hernández, 2Silvia Algaba Piña, 3Mª Jesús Albar Marín, 4Esperanza Núñez Ollero, 5Carmen Calero Barbe, 5Isabel Mª Pérez Caballero

Position

¹Diplomado en Enfermería. Área Materno-Infantil del Hospital Virgen Macarena de Sevilla. ²Diplomada en Enfermería. Área de Urgencias del Hospital Virgen Macarena de Sevilla.³Licenciada en Psicología y Diplomada en Enfermería. Unidad de Investigación del Área Hospitalaria de Virgen Macarena.⁴Diplomada en Enfermería. Maternidad del Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla. ⁵Diplomada en Enfermería. Unidad de Neonatología del Hospital Virgen de Valme de Sevilla.

Contact address

C/ Aloreña n°3. 41500 Sevilla.

Contact email: ats.enrique@wanadoo.es

Abstract

Objectives: to determine the prevalence (1st, 3rd and 6th month) of breastfeeding and to identify the practices followed in the maternity wards of three different public hospitals in Seville.

Material and Methods: the study consisted of 584 randomised women stratified by centres who filled out a questionnaire based on a review of the literature. Hospital practices and sociodemographic variables were measured. The SPSS 10.0 program was used for the descriptive analysis of the data.

Results: 93,1% of women started to breastfeed their newborns right after birth. However, this percentage showed a gradual decrease to 55,7/ at 6 months. The Labor and Delivery area of the Hospital Virgen del Rocío had a higher percentage of C-sections (32,6%), of which 96,7% were performed under epidural anaesthesia; at this same hospital, only 5,3% of the newborns were placed on the mummy’s stomachs immediately after birth and in 51,1% 2 to 6 hours elapsed between the birth and the first breastfeeding. In this same hospital, 70,4% of the women had been taught the art of breastfeeding by the nurse or midwife and 90,3% were feeding on demand. The Hospital de la Virgen de Valme showed the highest admissions rate into the Neonatology Unit (14,1%).

Conclusions: the satisfactory prevalence figures yielded by this study are in contrast with those of hospital practices, some of which fall far from WHO recommendations. An analysis of the existing interactions would be appropriate in this case using the adequate statistical tools. A number of proposals aimed at promoting breastfeeding these centres is presented.

Keywords:

breastfeeding; hospital practices; prevalence; delivery period; maternityneonatology

Versión en Español

Título:

Prevalencia de la lactancia materna y práctica hospitalaria en las Maternidades de Sevilla