midwives involvement in preparing the primigravida women for breast-feeding

a survey was made, to study the midwives involvement in preparing the primigravida women for breast feeding, in health centers associated with the ministry of health and medical education (tehran 1993) a total of 50 practicing midwives took part in this study. the tool was a check-list containing two sections. the first part had six items pertaining to the subject,s demographic characteristics. the second part covered 28 items pertaining to the midwives practices of examining breasts, teaching breast-feeding methods, teaching sessions for choosing a balanced and adequa te diet and providing psychological support to the primigravida woman. the findings are presented in 46 tables while descriptive and inferal statistics are used to demonstrate the results. the midwives mostly fell in the 30-39 years age of group, 'and were married. the mean for past experience was 12 years. about 50% of them stated they had personal experience in breast feeding. yet the findings revealed that few of them practiced breast examination. only half of them were weakly involved in teaching breast-feeding methods, but a considerable number held teaching sessions regarding a balanced diet. it was also found that only a few of the subjects gave adequate psychological support to the women. the overall rating showed that the majority of the subjects gave satisfactory care to prepare the primigravide for successful breast-feeding and only %2 obtained higher scores. no significant correlations were estimated between the personal characteristics of the subjects and their practice score, with exception of past breast feeding experience and having had courses on the needs of a balanced diet. based on the findings. suggestions for further research and implementations of the findings in different areas of practice were made.