Social representations of nursing teens on breastfeeding

Abstract

Objetive: This study aims to identify the social representations of adolescent nursing mothers on breastfeeding. Method: An seploratory descriptive study founded on the theory of social representations, and carried out in the coverage area of three Family Healthcare Units in the Metropolitan Area of Curitiba, Parana State, Brazil. Nine adolescents were interviewed by means of a semi-structured interview, data analyzed through thematic category analysis. Results: The following categories were identified: Experience of the family breastfeeding network and Breastfeeding as an obligation. Data evidenced that adolescents underpin their breastfeeding representations on family experience and represent health professionals with an authoritarian attitude to promote breastfeeding. Conclusion: These results may support professional practice redesign from a prescriptive manner to critic, creative, dialogical care, based on principles of wholeness and equity, which entail health needs not only for the mother, but as well, for the child as social subjects.