The influence of returning to work on maternal breastfeeding in nursing workers

Abstract

Objective  to analyze the influences of returning to work on maternal breastfeeding in mothers who are Nursing workers.

Method  a qualitative research developed through a semi-structured form, using Google Forms, with 49 female Nursing workers in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The data were submitted to lexicographic analysis, with the aid of the Interface de R pour Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes Et de Questionnaires (IRAMUTEQ) software, by the Word Cloud and Descending Hierarchical Classification methods.

Results  leverage of the text corpus was 88.24%, generating four classes of text segments. The main influences of returning to work on breastfeeding reported by the participants were as follows: lack of support from the management and coworkers, need for an adequate place and time for milking breast milk and decrease in milk production due to factors inherent to the work, in addition to overload and unhealthy working environments in Nursing.

Conclusion and implications for the practice  the identification of these factors enables understanding the demands of the participating nursing mothers and points to the need for innovative strategies, which guarantee the workers' rights, as well as infrastructure adaptations in their work environments.

Keywords:  Breastfeeding; Nursing team; Maternity leave; Working women; Return to work