Abstract
Objective
to analyze the father’s knowledge and his attitudes about breastfeeding.
Method
a descriptive cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, carried out with 220 men-fathers of infants aged 30 days to six months, experiencing or not experiencing the breastfeeding process and living in the same household as the mother-child binomial. The data were processed using IBM SPSS software version 23.0 for Windows®, and univariate and bivariate analyzes were performed. A questionnaire was used as an instrument, and the association of variables was used for processing and statistical analysis.
Results
of the men-fathers studied, 36.4% were unaware of the benefits of breastfeeding, 48.6% did not accompany the pregnant women in prenatal consultations and the parents who exercised paid activity, 68.2% reported helping the woman-mom in breastfeeding performing domestic activities or taking care of other children.
Conclusion and implications for practice
the father's absence in prenatal consultations and weakened knowledge about breastfeeding were evidenced, necessitating the development of studies that demonstrate their insertion and the creation of strategies by health professionals so that this process is experienced satisfactorily by the mother-father-son trinomial.
Keywords:
Breast feeding; Father; Knowledge; Prenatal care; Infant