Early termination of breast-feeding in periurban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: mothers' community perceptions and personal practices

RESUMO

OBJECTIVES: Teh objectives of this study were to determine: 1) whether mothers' perceptions of typical community practice for breast-feeding duration influence their personal practices and 2) whether the mothers' reports of commmunity reasons for terminating breast-feeding identify barriers not elicited trhough self-report. METHODS: The study was conducted in1997 in a sample of poor neighborhoods in a periurban district of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. A representative sample of 220 mothers from these neighborhoods was interviewed with a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: While the duration of breast-feeding was similar for self-report and for mothers' perceptions of typical community practice, ther was no statisically significant correlation between these two variables. "Mother-driven" reasons but rarely given as personal reasons. Personal reasons were predominately "child-driven," including "the child not wanting the breast," or reasons beyond the mother's control such as having "insufficient" milk. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal report of community reasons for early termination may be a useful way to identify factors that would not otherwise be reevealed on self-report aimed at increasing breast-feeding duration