INVOLVEMENT OF MATERNITY AND HEALTH-CARE STAFF IN BREAST-FEEDING

The prerequisites of the staff for their interest and concern in worki ng with questions related to breast-feeding have been studied by quest ionnaires which were answered by 133 nurses at pregnancy care centres, child health centres and maternity wards. The intention was to identi fy possible obstacles for the staff in supporting the mother's breast- feeding. In spite of extensive experience and positive attitudes to br east-feeding, about half of the staff found it difficult to work with these questions and to give enough support. The most common reasons fo r this fact were insufficient knowledge about breast-feeding, few poss ibilities for further training and a heavy workload. It was also evide nt that some routines need to be corrected. For instance, information about breast-feeding was provided late during pregnancy, the fathers w ere infrequently engaged and the communication between the departments was limited. A reorganization of the staff's working routines and the ir continuous further training in issues related to breast-feeding are recommended.