Breast-feeding practices have declined all over the world, negatively affecting the health of children and mothers. Since the 70's, worldwide activities for reviving breast-feeding were developed, but there are no studies of this trend in Brazil with national representative data. The present study had the objective of describing recent trends of breast-feeding practices in Brazil, in different populational subgroups, by comparing two national surveys carried out in 1975 e 1989. Probit analysis was used to estimate the prevalences of breast-feeding, by linear regression, using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to verify the adequacy of the obtained models. Breast-feeding practices considerably increased in Brazil, specially in the urban area, among women of the central-southern regions of the country, with higher per capita family income, and more years of schooling.
Breast-feeding, trends; Health policy; Brazil
