Knowledge of pregnant women living in riverside community about exclusive breastfeeding in the context of Primary Health Care

Abstract

Objective To discuss the knowledge of pregnant women living in riverside communities about exclusive breastfeeding and its influence on the decision to breastfeed. Method A descriptive and qualitative study, carried out with 20 pregnant women at the Municipal Health Unit of Cotijuba Island, in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews, conducted between March and June 2024. The corpus was subjected to lexical analysis with Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (0.7, alpha 2), using Descending Hierarchical Classification. Results: A total of 448 text segments were identified, of which 342 (76.34%) were used, generating six lexical classes, organized into two thematic axes, which presented the construction of knowledge about breastfeeding, mediated by social relations, and the knowledge that impacts the decision to breastfeed, highlighting the importance of breastfeeding for the growth and development of newborns and infants and the interface with complementary feeding. Conclusion: Despite challenging experiences and expectations and the discouragement caused by people around them, pregnant women considered breastfeeding as an opportunity to strengthen bonds with their children.