[Weaning experiences among women from the same family]

Joseila Sonego1, Isabel Cristina Pacheco Van der Sand, Ana Maria de Almeida

  • 1Saúde Pública da Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo (EERP/USP). joselasonego@yahoo.com.br

This work is a case study that aimed to acknowledge the reasons that persuade women-mothers from a same family to wean their children, and identify the feelings that accompany these women during this process. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection, and the analysis was done using Minayo's (1993) methodological orientations. It was concluded that weaning takes place due to various reasons such as: a new pregnancy, child's age, mother's or child's disease, and breast refusal by the child. It was verified that weaning can be soothing for some women while for others it is accompanied by suffering. Through the studied women-mother's speeches, it was observed that policymakers' discourses on breast-feeding seem to influence a lot on this practice, having better results on the youngest ones than the previous generations of the family.

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