[The practice of breastfeeding in a group of Brazilian women: a movement of accommodation and resistance]. / A prática do aleitamento materno em um grupo de mulheres brasileiras: movimento de acomodação e resistência.

Actions to stimulate breastfeeding are directed to assist children's needs and do not contemplate woman in her specificities. The present study aimed at understanding the meanings women give to their experiences and demands in the practice of breastfeeding. 20 women that were experiencing breastfeeding for the first time were interviewed. Data analysis were based on the feminist theory. Authors found breast feeding as a feminine process socially determined. Women showed accommodation as they felt the act of breast feeding as donation, a sacrifice and dedication as well as resistance when they justified weaning affirming the lack of physiological capacity for breastfeeding.

[Conceptual bases supporting the obtention of knowledge about back pain in pregnancy]. / Reflexões sobre as bases conceituais que fundamentam a construção do conhecimento acerca da lombalgia na gestação.

Low back pain is a problem that is faced by 50% of pregnant women and causes important social trouble. In spite of this, the problem is considered to be normal and is expected during pregnancy, which has contributed to the lack of prophylactic and relief measures. This work aims at under standing the historical and conceptual bases that have given rise to such naturalization as outlined by midwifery and by using world literature indexed on the topic from 1987 to 1997 as a theoretical framework. We have apprehended that a deterministic view related to this issue is supported by the biomedical model. Therefore, the adoption of effective solutions requires the incorporation of a new paradigm.

Breast feeding among Brazilian adolescents: practice and needs.

OBJECTIVES: to characterise breast feeding practices among Brazilian adolescents and identify their breast feeding needs. METHODS: the study was undertaken in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil in two stages. The first stage analysed data from the Second National Survey of Breast-feeding Prevalence, held in August 2008, which included 229 adolescent mothers. The second stage was a qualitative approach, and involved interviews with 10 adolescent mothers in a primary care unit. The data from the first stage were analysed in June 2010 based on descriptive statistics. The data obtained from the interviews were transcribed and organised using thematic content analysis. FINDINGS: breast feeding was reported by 75% of the adolescent mothers. Of the 144 mothers with infants aged <180 days, 84% reported that they were breast feeding: 19% were breast feeding exclusively, 17% were breast feeding predominantly, 49% were providing complementary feeding, and 16% had weaned their infants. Analysis of the interviews led to the identification of three thematic units: concern for the child's health; breast feeding difficulties; and health team and family support. CONCLUSIONS: the majority of the adolescent mothers presented conditions that were favourable to breast feeding (e.g. did not work outside the home, only had one child, breast fed in the first hour post partum). However, the practice of breast feeding still failed to meet the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The interviews led to identification of the breast feeding needs and demands of adolescent mothers, many of which were related to the needs of their infants. It is important to know what adolescent mothers think about breast feeding, in order to encourage the establishment of practices to keep breastfeeding as longer as possible in a satisfactory way for both mothers and infants.

[Women and health: their concerns]. / Mulher e saúde: suas preocupações.

This investigation is part of a transcultural research project on women and health, which has as its conceptual framework women's life experiences. This research is qualitative in nature, and the methodology utilized is a content analysis of the documented discourses of a group of lower class women in Ribeirão Preto (SP). The results demonstrate that for these women, health is much more than the absence of disease". Their health concerns are biological, interpersonal, social and economic in nature, and are based more upon their personal experiences and social perceptions than on the concept of health and disease. The importance of this research is its relevance for quality nursing care which takes into consideration the many aspects of being a woman.