HIV AND BREASTFEEDING: THE FEELINGS OF HIV-POSITIVE WOMEN BEFORE THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF BREASTFEEDING

A theoretical-reflective study

Abstract

Breastfeeding is essential and extremely beneficial for newborns. Through it, it is possible to prevent urinary and respiratory diseases, in addition to other comorbidities such as diabetes, breast and ovarian cancer. All the benefits of breastfeeding are disabled if the mother has an infectious disease, such as HIV/AIDS. Thus, the objective of this work is to synthesize and analyze the reports and feelings of seropositive women unable to breastfeed from the perspective of the scientific literature. This is a theoretical-reflective, exploratory and explanatory study with a qualitative approach. The search was carried out between June and December 2021 in the databases of Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS) and Database in Nursing (BDENF). The inclusion criteria of the study were: complete, free articles that were related to the theme in question, with no language restriction and/or publication date. 2,417 articles were found in the databases used. Of these, 40 articles met the inclusion criteria and only 12 articles were selected to compose the final study sample. The emotions experienced by seropositive women who are unable to breastfeed can trigger the emergence of maternal and child health problems. Therefore, the understanding and empathy of health professionals in providing health services to this population is extremely important.