Do maternity hospital practices support Greek mothers' decision to breastfeed?
OBJECTIVE
Previous studies have shown that the conditions in Greek maternity hospitals do not support the right of mothers and their children to breastfeed. The aim of the present report was to investigate the degree that Greek maternity hospitals have adopted the 'Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding'.


METHODS
The study sample comprised 140 mothers living in Athens who had recently given birth and volunteered to fill in specific questionnaires.


RESULTS
40.5% of the mothers did not know what the first meal of their baby was. Regarding hospitals' practices, 68.3% of the mothers mentioned that artificial milk was brought in every meal of the neonate, while 63.6% believed that artificial milk was given to their child without their knowledge, despite the fact that they had already decided to breastfeed. Ninety percent of the mothers giving birth in public maternity hospitals and 60% delivering in private clinics mentioned that health professionals supported breastfeeding (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that in daily practice, Greece has not yet created an appropriate well informed and supportive environment in regard to breastfeeding.
Daglas
M
M
Department of Sociology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece. daglam@fks.uoc.gr
Petoussi
V
V
Dionysiou
G
G
Athanassakis
I
I
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006771:Hospitals, Maternity; D016304:Hospitals, Private; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D041943:Infant Formula; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009035:Mothers; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires