Avaliação da influência do estresse materno no período da pandemia de COVID-19 na manutenção da amamentação exclusiva

Abstract

The benefits of breastfeeding for the health of mother and baby are evident and support strategies that aim to promote, protect and support breastfeeding as a condition of right to the health and well-being of women. Addressing stressful situations for women may be a relationship with early weaning, but this association during the covid-19 pandemic has not been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of perceived maternal stress in the period of the covid-19 pandemic and other associated factors on the interruption of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). The work was approved by the research ethics committee of Pedro Ernesto University hospital – HUPE/UEJR. Participants were selected through social media searches through profiles created on social networks for research, using specific hashtags and manual search in groups with a large number of mothers and snowball technique. Data collection was performed through an online questionnaire, answered at two times (before and after the 6 months of the child’s life) from June 2020 to August 2021. The reduced perceived stress scale (PSS) was used to assess stress. Statistical analysis was performed in the program rstudio 3.6.3© (rstudio, pbc). A logistics regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (odds ratio, or) to assess the association between independent variables with weaning, and the mann- whitney tests and spearman correlation to assess the association between perceived stress with early weaning and the duration of ebitch, respectively. The level of significance was 0.05. The sample was composed of 1,237 mothers of babies born in the period of the covid-19 pandemic, the average duration of ebf was 133 days (sd ± 76). There was a significant association between the use of pacifier [OR= 2.80; CI (95%): 2.17-3.63; p-value: <0.0001], ], low birth weight [OR= 2,17; CI (95%): 1,18-4,09; p-valor: 0,001], maternal age [OR= 0,97; IC (95%): 0,95-0,99; p-valor: 0,01], women’s return to work [OR= 1.70; CI (95%): 1.30-2.24; p-value: <0.0001], the absence of support for breastfeeding [OR= 6.37; CI (95%): 3.40-12.8; p-value: <0.0001] and the fear of contamination by covid-19 [OR= 1.54; CI (95%): 1.18-2.02; p-value: 0.0001] with interruption of EBF. Regarding to perceveid stress level, 2.3% of women showed a low level, 53.6% moderate, and 44.1% high. However, no association was observed between the level of perceived stress and weaning (p-value = 0.48) or with the duration of EBF (p-value = 0.97). Self-reported perceived stress by women during the covid- 19 pandemic did not influence the interruption or duration of exclusive breastfeeding. However, the use of pacifiers, the return of women to work, the absence of breastfeeding support, and the fear of contamination by covid-19 increased the chances of this interruption.