Breast pain in breastfeeding mothers: prevalence and associated factors

Introduction: While breastfeeding benefits have been widely recognized by science, early weaning continues to happen as a situation that is associated with multiple causes, including breast problems, which can hinder or even interrupt lactation. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of breast pain and associated factors for breastfeeding mothers who are users of a breast milk bank. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted based on secondary data collected through specialized healthcare activity records at the Human Milk Bank of the University Hospital of the Federal University of Maranhao (HU-UFMA) between January 2017 and December 2018. Data were collected through a questionnaire between September and November 2019 subsequently entered into a table in an Excel spreadsheet to be analyzed using Stata 14. Pearson's chi-squared test was used and a significance level of 0.05 was followed. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee through Plataforma Brasil under approval number 16782719.8.0000.5086. Results: Sociodemographic and obstetric variables of breastfeeding mothers were analyzed, showing a prevalence of self-reported breast pain in 20.7% of the cases. A statistically significant association was found between variables "marital status" and "type of childbirth delivery". Conclusion: Although the prevalence of breast pain is relatively low, guidance on breastfeeding should be given to pregnant mothers to avoid it. Therefore, it was evident the lack of these orientations at the prenatal level, especially in private healthcare services where nursing care protocol do not exist.