Medicina Comunitária e Educação em Saúde

Abstrato

Why Women Stop Breast Feeding in Occupied Palestine?

Neveen Shalalfa 1* , Baraa Wajeeh 2 and Ibrahim Heeh 1

Aim of the study: To explore the reasons why Palestinian mothers stop breastfeeding before 6 months of baby age.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Hebron/Palestine that included mothers of all 420 live singleton newborns
in the period between (January 1, 2022, and July 31, 2022). Mothers who did not initiate breastfeeding or who continued to
breastfeed, either exclusively or with supplementation, beyond the first 6 months of life were excluded. The information about
BF status at 6 months of baby age and reasons for stopping BF was collected by Public health doctors and midwives through
telephone or face-to-face interviews when women visit the clinic for family planning consult.
Results: Of all the 420 participant mothers, 300 stopped breastfeeding completely before 6 months of baby age, among them,
only 281 gave an obvious reason for stopping breastfeeding, (30%) stopped breastfeeding because of scanty milk production,
(28.8%) child weaning him/herself, (24.8%) show that returning to work is the main cause, fatigue, and painful nipples were
(8.4%) and mother preference was (4%).
Conclusion: This study highlights the reasons why women stop breastfeeding completely before 6 months. The results may help
in identifying interventions to prolonged breastfeeding periods.