Fatores relacionados ao conhecimento sobre aleitamento materno em gestantes de alto risco : estudo transversal

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the widely recognized and scientifically proven benefits of breastfeeding, there are still several barriers that prevent women from exclusively breastfeeding, such as not receiving information about breastfeeding during prenatal care, not breastfeeding within the first hour of the baby’s life, encountering breastfeeding difficulties in the hospital and at home. For high-risk pregnant women, these barriers are related to comorbidities, medication use, work, and lack of information. Objectives: To analyze the factors related to knowledge about breastfeeding among high-risk pregnant women. Method: This is an observational, cross-sectional, exploratory, analytical study conducted at the Lauro Wanderley University Hospital in João Pessoa, Paraíba, with high-risk pregnant women between September 2023 and April 2024. Data was collected using a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Knowledge Breastfeeding Scale. Variables that showed significance in bivariate analysis were pre-selected and tested in a multivariate model using Poisson regression with robust variance. The final model included variables with statistical significance at 5%.Results: A total of 253 pregnant women participated in the study. Regarding knowledge about breastfeeding among high-risk pregnant women, 210 (83.0%) had sufficient knowledge, 40 (15.8%) had intermediate knowledge, and 3 (1.2%) had insufficient knowledge. Through multivariate analysis, it was found that for each additional year of schooling, there was a 9% increase in breastfeeding knowledge, and for each additional child, there was a 17% increase in breastfeeding knowledge. Conclusions: The study found that the majority of participants were mixed-race pregnant women, in their third trimester, diabetic, with completed high school education, and single, although they lived with their partners. Most had previous children, had breastfed before, and had received prior breastfeeding guidance at HULW. Knowledge about breastfeeding among high-risk pregnant women was considered sufficient. However, the level of knowledge increased with higher years of education and more children. It is essential to conduct more studies using the KNOWL scale and to develop further research focused on breastfeeding and high-risk pregnant women, such as intervention studies. This would contribute to a better understanding and improvement of care practices for this specific population.