title: Breast-feeding attitudes and practices among Vietnamese mothers in Ho Chi Minh City.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to describe breast-feeding attitudes and practices among Vietnamese women in Ho Chi Minh City.
  
  
  METHODS
  a descriptive qualitative study was used. The theory of planned behaviour provided the conceptual framework.
  
  
  METHODS
  the Well-baby Clinic, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of a university hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  
  
  METHODS
  23 voluntary Vietnamese mothers.
  
  
  METHODS
  semi-structured in-depth interview with five open-ended questions and observation was used. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data from the interviews and observations were analysed by use of content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  five categories of breast-feeding attitudes and practices were identified: breast-feeding best but not exclusive, cultural and traditional beliefs, infant feeding as a learning process, factors influencing decision to breast feed, and intention to feed the child.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  cultural and traditional beliefs and practices, and socio-economic situation, influenced the Vietnamese mothers' breast feeding. Health-care professionals should consider cultural context and socio-economic issues when preparing infant feeding education and intervention programmes. Appropriate knowledge about cultural values should be included in health-care education in order to provide culturally congruent care to Vietnamese mothers in Vietnam as well as in Western countries.
authors: Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Pranee.Lundberg@pubcare.uu.se
authors: Pranee C
authors: PC
authors: Lundberg
authors: Trieu Thi
authors: TT
authors: Ngoc Thu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014744:Vietnam