La consejería en lactancia materna exclusiva: De la teoría a la práctica

The benefits of breastfeeding in terms of health for both mother and child are well known. However, despite the different strategies to promote its practice, breastfeeding practice still remains low. In Colombia, the 2010 ENSIN (Spanish acronym for National Survey on Nutritional Status) reported an exclusive breastfeeding prevalence of 42.8%, an amount still far from achieving the target set by the World Health Organization on breastfeeding exclusivity until the child is six months old and complementary breastfeeding up to two years old. During the last 20 years interventions such as breastfeeding counseling have been set in motion. In Colombia, training of health personnel in breastfeeding counseling began in the early 90s, somehow, currently there are several difficulties to implement breastfeeding counseling in pregnant women and mothers in breastfeeding stage attending health institutions in the country. As a result, counseling focuses on supporting women regarding the difficulties that arise when breastfeeding from the physiological aspect, but it does not focus on women at all. Knowledge on counseling theoretical bases allows orienting the mother to promote breastfeeding and its exclusivity in children until they are six years old. Likewise, it is necessary to take into account the challenges that arise when moving from theory to practice in the Colombian context.