[Mothers' experiences of breastfeeding support by health visitors in Hungary]

Introduction: In spite of the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months of age, some of the mothers do not always provide this for their child for various reasons. In Hungary, breastfeeding is supervised by the health visitors so their role is crucial in this area. Objective: The aim of our research was to understand mothers’ knowledge and difficulties related to breastfeeding, and to explore their experiences about the activities of the health visitors. Method: Our cross-sectional survey was conducted between July 2023 and February 2024. Non-random, convenience sampling was used to target mothers who had started breastfeeding. Our exclusion criteria were insufficient breastfeeding experience, uninterpretable fulfilment of the questionnaire, and completion of breastfeeding more than 1 year ago (n = 287). Our survey was conducted anonymously online using a self-administered, self-completed questionnaire. The questions covered sociodemographic and breastfeeding data, knowledge level, and experiences and satisfaction with the health visitor. Data were analyzed using descriptive and mathematical statistics in Microsoft Excel. Results were presented with frequency and mean confidence intervals, considered significant at p<0.05. Results: 38% of our respondents exclusively breastfed their child until 6 months of age. These mothers had significantly higher levels of breastfeeding knowledge (p<0.001) than their counterparts who had exclusively breastfed for less time. 61% of mothers scored in the medium range on our knowledge test. Insufficient breast milk was the most common reason for stopping breastfeeding in 37%. 41% of mothers with one child did not receive any breastfeeding education by the health visitor during pregnancy, but this did not show a significant correlation with earlier stop of breastfeeding (p>0.05). 76% of our respondents were satisfied with the health visitor’s activities. The lowest rating in the satisfaction survey was given to questions on breastfeeding support, with a mean score of 2.65 on a scale of 4. Discussion: The proportion of mothers who exclusively breastfeed for up to 6 months is broadly in line with other international and national findings. The satisfaction rate in our study is significantly lower than the results of the study by Deutsch et al. in 2014 for all the same questions. Conclusion: Adequate knowledge transfer should be emphasised in health visitor’s caring. Respondents were not very satisfied with the breastfeeding support provided by health visitors, so this definitely needs to be improved, which would benefit from effective education and training of professionals. Orv Hetil. 2024; 165: 1628–1640.