FACTORES CONDICIONANTES DE LA LACTANCIA EN RECIéN NACIDOS SANOS DEL HOSPITAL UNIVERSITARIO CLíNICA SAN RAFAEL (HUCSR)

traditionally, factors associated with breastfeeding which vary according to the different cultures have been described. in colombia, the indicators of exclusive breastfeeding prevalence and breastfeeding duration are very far from the recommendations settled by the world health organization (who). the pediatrics department of the hospital universitario clínica san rafael, taking into account the benefits provided by the breast milk, have been working for the last years in favor of rescuing the breastfeeding as a suitable cultural practice. in response to this need, in august 2004, it created the breastfeeding institutional program "first boys, girls and adolescents", form which various questions emerged regarding the breastfeeding behavior in our environment, which gave rise to the present research work. a cohort, prospective study was designed, conducted by administering a survey to 372 mothers of healthy newborns in post partum. the cohort was recruited between july 2007 and june 2008 and was followed-up until the infants were 24 months of age with the aim of determining the breastfeeding duration, its conditioning factors and the most frequent causes for its drop-out. the infants were to be withdrawed from the study when they completed 24 months of age (breastfeeding duration recommended by the who) or upon documenting their drop-out before 24 months of age. 14.7% of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months and a cumulative duration of 14 months were found for the examined population.