Breastfeeding promotion is one of the most effective strategies to prevent child malnutrition; it reduces costs to families, health services and society. In Colombia, exclusive breastfeeding is practiced only by 10% of women. Objective: To identify factors associated with the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Methods: A cohort of 438 primiparous women was followed during 6 months by means of 8 home interviews, in order to determine the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Individual, family and health service factors were studied; and survival analysis was carried out. Results: At 8 days, only a few more than half of the participants maintained exclusive breastfeeding; at month 6 of follow-up, this proportion was reduced to 1.4%. The duration of exclusive breastfeeding was determined by: initiation of breastfeeding in the first 4 hours after delivery (HR= 4.07, 95% CI: 0.96-16.67), self-perceived sureness for breastfeeding (HR= 1.28, 95% CI: 1.04 -1.58), positive opinion of the baby's father regarding breastfeeding (HR= 1.26, 95% CI: 1.01-1.57), and newborn weight (HR= 1.23, 95% CI: 1.00-1.53). Conclusion: There are factors before delivery and in the immediate puerperium that determine, partially, the duration of exclusive breastfeeding.

Introduction: Breastfeeding promotion is one of the most important strategies against infant mortality and to control child undernourishment. Despite policies and plans to promote and protect breastfeeding in Colombia, its practice is low and its duration is short. Objective: To propose an ecology framework to interpret and incorporate contextual, interpersonal, and individual factors associated with the practice of breastfeeding and duration. Thereby, the plans and policies addressed to promote and pro­tect breastfeeding in Colombia could be reinforced. Conclusions: To implement an ecology framework for Breastfeeding in Colombia, it is necessary to identify the effect of contextual factors in the biggest cultural regions of Colombia, to recognize the limitations of Infant-Friendly Hospital Initiatives to improve exclusive breastfeeding duration, to execute prospective studies in order to identify factors associated with breastfeeding duration, to design and implement plans and policies based on comprehensive planning strategies of healthcare interventions, to develop appropriate and cost-effective extra-institutional strategies aimed at prolonging the duration of breastfeeding, and to implement more reliable breastfeeding surveillance systems.

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ObjetivosLa pertinencia en las remisiones de pacientes del Distrito Capital, generadas por los servicios de consulta externa, urgencia y hospitalización de 32 empresas sociales del Estado (ESE). Caracterizar los procesos involucrados con la referencia y contrarreferencia de pacientes pertenecientes al régimen subsidiado o vinculado del Distrito Capital.MetodologíaSe realizó un estudio transversal, recolectándose información de 1,513 remisiones. Se estableció la pertinencia en la decisión médica de acuerdo con la capacidad técnica de la IPS para atender adecuadamente la enfermedad del paciente. En el análisis cualitativo se realizó un estudio tipo teoría, partiendo de las experiencias de los usuarios y los prestadores de servicios.ResultadosEl 80% de las remisiones fueron pertinentes en la decisión médica y el 20% no. El direccionamiento fue adecuado en el 50.4% de las remisiones y no adecuado en el 49.6%. Las remisiones efectivas fueron el 53.1% del total.ConclusionesLos problemas en la decisión de la remisión y la baja proporción de adecuación en el direccionamiento evidencian problemas en la decisión médica, coordinación y comunicación deficiente, falta de definición de procedimientos y ausencia de sistemas de evaluación periódica.

This letter focuses on recent and interesting work on breastfeeding, to emphasize two observations. The first observation refers to the fact that, in Mateus and Cabrera’s manuscript It was hardly discussed whether the referred knowledge and skills may be relevant to understanding the mothers’ behavior regarding their commitment to breastfeeding. The relevance of these cognitive aspects requires more attention due to their relationship with breastfeeding practices, and in general with the long-term mother-infant dyad. Because the knowledge and skills to maintain successful breastfeeding have implications for developing instructional content in interventions for mothers as well, great attention needs to be paid to the size of the effect of differences between reported frequencies in pregnancy and the immediate puerperium. In Table 3, these differences were examined by the McNemar statistical test, which allows obtaining the statistical significance of the rejection of the null hypothesis of no differences. But neither this test nor the size of its p-value inform about the degree or size of the differences. An estimate of the size or magnitude of the differences, represented as point values or confidence intervals (as reported in Tables 4 and 5), tend to better specify tests of statistical significance.