Abstract

PINZON-VILLATE, Gloria Yaneth; ARBOLEDA MONTOYA, Luz Marina  and  RAMIREZ-CORTAZAR, Felipe. Social representations of human donation: a study in four cities of Colombia. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.44, n.2, pp.17-37.  Epub Mar 31, 2022. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v44n2.87614.

Currently there is a reduced practice of breastfeeding in Colombia. To improve the indicators, the country has created public health strategies as donation through Human Milk Banks, whose process is difficult in the country. This research aims to reveal the social construction of the practice from the perspective of mothers to understand their reasons for donating or not donating in Human Milk Banks and, thus, be able to establish strategies to promote donation that take into account everyday life experiences. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to identify the social representations on the donation of breast milk from lactating women in four cities in Colombia, where Human Milk Banks currently operate.

A mixed design was used, with various techniques, as: hierarchical evocation, surveys, semi-structured interview, and field diary. Only the results obtained from the hierarchical evocation are presented where 199 breastfeeding mothers from of Pasto, Bogotá, Medellín, and Zipaquirá participated, all of them over 18 years and with children under 12 months, classified into four groups according to their experience and knowledge of the human milk donation process.

The results show that to understand the donation of human milk, three main components converge: the mother-child's bond of love, the donation as an altruistic act, and the healthy value given to breast milk.

The donation of human milk is set up by the importance that the group of children under 2 years of age has for society, who attribute to it the meaning of "the best" food for babies due to its nutritional contribution, that influences their health, nutritional, and growth status.

The use of hierarchical evocation in health allows the researcher to go deeper into the structure and organization of social representation and generates fundamental information for the formulation of strategies that seek to raise awareness about the donation process in Colombia.

Descriptors: breast feeding, child welfare, Colombia, nutrition.

Keywords : breastfeeding; donation; human milk; Human Milk Bank; infants; mothers; social representations.

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