INFLUENCIA DE LA EDUCACIÓN Y LA CONSEJERÍA EN LA LACTANCIA MATERNA EXCLUSIVA.

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is linked to the physiological and anatomical characteristics that mammals share and that differentiate them from other species, in addition, it must be understood as a subjective event, which implies that the woman in her period breastfeeding is subject to their emotionality, transversal to their sociocultural environment, being important, more than the pure care accompaniment, the educational, social and psychological support(1); According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this feeding method is reported as the best way to provide nutrients to the infant in the first six months of life and as a vital complement from six months and even beyond two years. Education and counseling around exclusive breastfeeding becomes relevant during breastfeeding, because the first provides the breastfeeding woman with the tools and knowledge necessary to breastfeed and the second is provided by personnel. trained when there are problems identified during breastfeeding and seeks to provide solutions in an effective way (2). The objective focused on investigating the influence of education and counseling on EBF in breastfeeding women. It was developed using inductive qualitative research, with a Phenomenological approach, using the semi-structured interview technique; The population was made up of seventeen breastfeeding women, mothers of boys and girls between 0 and 2 years of age, served in the growth and development service of the ESE Suroriente, Public IPS located in the city of Cali Colombia, for the year 2022, the investigation was carried out through the use of the "snowball" strategy until the saturation of results and emerging variables. A coded instrument was implemented for the semi-structured interview that contained nine questions, to which a pilot test was carried out, in order to collect information related to: prior knowledge about breastfeeding, access to information, difficulties around breastfeeding and access to counseling provided by health professionals at the institution. Once the interviews were carried out, they were coded to guarantee the principle of confidentiality during the systematization and analysis process; Likewise, the interviews were transcribed and the content analysis was developed based on the emerging categories and categories. It was found that both education and counseling, although implemented by the institution providing the health service, are not being carried out as expected.