ABSTRACT:
Purpose:
to investigate the evaluation of mothers of preterm newborns about the introduction and use of pacifiers and its relationship with socioeconomic variables, prematurity and breastfeeding, in the context of their children hospitalization in neonatal intensive care unit.
Methods:
during the early stage, 62 preterm newborns' mothers participated in this study, 52 of them came back for follow-up at six months of age and 40 at 24 months. Data were tabulated using software SPSS version 18.0 and statistical analysis using chi-square, Fisher and Mann-Whitney tests.
Results:
the attempt to introduce a pacifier took place for 96.2% of preterm infants discharged from neonatal intensive care unit, and it was used by 50%. The use of pacifiers was high among other children in the family (siblings - 51.9%; cousins - 76.9%), which reinforced cultural aspects. The following showed statistically significant association with higher use of pacifiers: prematurity assessed by weight/gestational age ratio (p=0.044), difficult to start or continue breastfeeding after discharge (p=0.012) and primiparity (p=0.02); relation with lower frequency of pacifier: exclusive breastfeeding ≥3 months (p=0.026) and breastfeeding length ≥6 months (p=0.004). Difficulty in breastfeeding after discharge was associated to higher hospitalization length (p=0.007) and higher length of orogastric tube (p=0.006).
Conclusion:
offering pacifiers to preterm infants discharged from neonatal intensive care unit showed strong cultural influence, but their acceptance occurred mainly due to mothers' difficulty to start or continue breastfeeding.
Keywords:
Pacifiers; Breastfeeding; Culture; Infant, Premature
