Maternal knowledge about breastfeeding protective factor to breast cancer
International Journal of Development Research
Maternal knowledge about breastfeeding protective factor to breast cancer
Received 03rd May, 2019; Received in revised form 26th June, 2019; Accepted 19th July, 2019; Published online 30th August, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Débora Priscila Costa Freire, Poliana Pereira Costa Rabêlo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The mammary carcinoma is among the cancers with the highest incidence in the world and has been gradually increasing. Breastfeeding is among the modifiable risk factors of this pathology, thus, an allied protective factor. However, in Brazil, there is a shortage in the measures of orientation of women in relation to these factors. Therefore, this study aimed to verify whether women who breastfeed make use of this practice aware of the protective factor for breast cancer. In this way, a descriptive study with transversal and quantitative approach was developed. The sample consisted of 91 mothers of exclusive breastfeeding, in a capital of Northeastern Brazil, during the period of September and November 2016. After applying a structured form, the data were processed and analyzed. The most relevant results indicated that the majority of the sample has knowledge about breastfeeding as a protective factor against breast cancer, but only a minority lists this factor as important. Despite the large proportion of women aware about the benefits of breastfeeding, it is ideal to work better this knowledge in prenatal visits and by a multidisciplinary professional framework.
