Breastfeeding training in Mexican health students may not be enough: A case analysis.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding education is key to undergraduate nursing, nutrition, and medicine students' study programs. All students should be prepared to support and inform mothers about the best infant feeding methods. However, students may not be receiving adequate training to provide this support during their preparation. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to explore if the Learning Units of the study programs of the bachelor's degrees in medicine, nursing, and nutrition, incorporate theoretical/practical content regarding breastfeeding and to evaluate whether these contents cover requirements related to knowledge and skills in breastfeeding recommended by international organizations for student's health area. DESIGN: Descriptive. METHODS: In the study programs of the bachelor's degrees, we identified the Learning Units that described theoretical/practical contents related to the subject of breastfeeding, to later contrast this training with the objectives in knowledge and skills in breastfeeding that the students in the health area should receive during their academic education, according to international recommendations. RESULTS: The three study programs offer content on breastfeeding. The degrees in nursing and medicine manage to review a more significant number of training contents, unlike nutrition. However, the knowledge and skills targeted and identified do not seem to approach the knowledge and skills recommended by international institutions. CONCLUSIONS: Several knowledge and skills need to be addressed during the training of health students. Thematic content and educational strategies must be improved and implemented to improve their breastfeeding training.

Validation of the Spanish-Mexican Version of the Australian Breastfeeding Attitude Questionnaire in Higher Education Health Students.

Positive attitudes towards breastfeeding in health professionals/students have been associated with increasing their confidence to provide support and accompaniment to mothers. In Mexico, there is no valid/reliable tool to assess attitudes towards breastfeeding in this population. The Australian Breastfeeding Attitudes (and Knowledge) Questionnaire (ABAQ) measures attitudes in the Australian population. We aimed to adapt and validate the ABAQ in Mexican health students. We included 264 health students (nursing, nutrition, and medicine) from the University of Guadalajara. Bilingual translators carried out the Spanish adaptation with a reverse translation into English. Experts evaluated the content validity. Reliability was evaluated through an internal consistency analysis (Cronbach's alpha) and construct validity through convergent-divergent validation, item-total correlation, exploratory factor analysis (by principal components), and confirmatory factor analysis. According to the exploratory factor analysis, only one component was identified. Seven items were removed (low correlation between items ≤0.2 and low factor load ≤0.3). The Cronbach's alpha was 0.78. According to the confirmatory factor analysis, the one-factor solution of the ABAQ-13Mx showed a good model fit (X2 = 98.41, G = 62, p = 0.02, CFI = 0.940, and RMSEA = 0.048). The ABAQ-13Mx is a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating attitudes towards breastfeeding in Mexican health degree students.