Summary:

Supporting breastfeeding: a successful experience.

This paper relates the success of a study that helped enhance breast-feeding by means of a support group in Southern Brazil. The International Multicenter Growth Reference Study was designed to help WHO develop new growth charts to measure nutritional status of populations and to evaluate individual growth. Southern Brazil was one of the sites selected for the study, and an ongoing data collection for the longitudinal component of the study (based on children aged 0-24 months) began in July 1997. The new growth reference will be based on the growth of children with the following characteristics: gestational age at birth between 37 and 42 full weeks, single birth, lack of significant perinatal morbidity, absence of maternal smoking, no economic constraints on growth, and being breast-fed for at least 1 full year and given no other foods during the first 4-6 months. Since few mothers in Brazil follow this recommendation, a lactation support group was trained to help mothers breast-feed their babies. It was found that the breast-feeding support group really made a difference, at least with regard to the duration of breast-feeding. Mothers who had support breast-fed longer and waited longer to introduce other foods into their children’s diet compared to those who had no support. The factors that contributed to increased breast-feeding duration are enumerated. In conclusion, supporting mothers in breast-feeding is beneficial to both mothers and children and can lead to a better quality of life.

Authors: Albernaz, Elaine; Giugliani, Elsa R. J.; Victora, Cesar G.

Journal: J Hum Lact. 1998 Dec;14(4):283-5.