Being a mother: understanding the meanings and attitudes of care with the newborn during breasfeeding

Abstract

This descriptive, qualitative study aims to understand meanings, attitudes, facilities and diffi culties of being a mother” when it comes to care with newborns, during breastfeeding. Fifteen breastfeeding women were interviewed in a city of Ceará about breastfeeding, in 2006. The data were organized in four categories following Bardin’s principles of content analysis. The results of the categories “meanings” and “attitudes” of “being a mother” who experiences the newborn in breastfeeding, in summary, express “everything, giving food…”, “it’s so much donation “concerning the categories “easiness” and “diffi culties”: “it means not having to prepare porridge at night”. “The most diffi cult thing is that my breast got full of milk and I had mammary ingurgitation”. Out of the discourses of being a mother and breastfeeding the newborn, we may conclude that it is essential education and health during prenatal and puerperal periods.