Amamentação no ambiente prisional: Conhecimentos e práticas

Abstract

Introduction: The significant increase of women in the prison environment in the last decades has brought about the growth of the number of infants in penitentiaries. However, Brazil has a legal system that guarantees full protection and exclusive breastfeeding in this environment. Objective:To understand the knowledge of legal guarantees and daily practices for the breastfeeding of infants, mothers deprived of their liberty in prisons and health professionals of the penitentiary system.Methodological approach: Study of a qualitative nature, conducted between April and November of 2017. The subjects of the survey were women deprived of their liberty who were breastfeeding in a prison environment, and all the basic health staff of the penitentiary. The sample of women was by theoretical saturation. For data collection, we used an interview with semi-structured script. After transcriptions, the data analysis followed the methodological proposal of Bardin Content Analysis. Results: It was possible to see that mothers deprived of their liberty and prison health workers know the right to breastfeeding, but they do not know how to specify the legal instruments. On the one hand, the wife does not comply with the law, exclusively breastfeeds her child and favors with small benefits and, on the other hand, health professionals do not observe if the rights of the children are being respected, in addition, they allow food and do not enforce the law.Conclusions: Breastfeeding in the prison environment is protected by a whole legal apparatus, aiming to guarantee the exclusive breastfeeding rights of infants, however, there is noncompliance with legislation by mothers and professionals. The daily practices that influence breastfeeding in the unit and that are adopted by mothers and health professionals have not always had positive repercussions on breastfeeding, disregarding the practice of exclusive breastfeeding.