THE INFLUENCE OF NURSING CARE ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF POSTPARTUM WOMEN: IMPACTS ON BREASTFEEDING

Abstract

The postpartum period is a time of intense physical, emotional, and social transformations that makes the postpartum woman vulnerable to mental disorders such as postpartum dysphoria, postpartum depression, and anxiety. These conditions impair maternal well-being, the mother-baby bond, and exclusive breastfeeding, recommended by the World Health Organization for the first six months. Despite its relevance, there is a gap in research regarding the impact of nursing interventions in mental health on adherence, duration, and exclusivity of breastfeeding. The general objective was to analyze the influence of nursing care on the mental health of the postpartum woman and its contribution to effective breastfeeding, including specific objectives on common mental disorders, impacts on duration, and intervention strategies. The research is a qualitative and descriptive literature review, with searches in the Google Scholar, BVS, and SciELO databases, for articles from the last ten years in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, using keywords and Boolean operators, with descriptive analysis. The results reveal that nursing care, through early detection using the Edinburgh Postnatal Scale, emotional support, psychoeducation, support groups, and educational technologies, increases exclusive breastfeeding rates from the national average of 45.8% to 49-70%, reduces depressive and anxious symptoms, strengthens maternal self-efficacy, and breaks the cycle of emotional distress and early weaning. It is concluded that nursing acts as a central agent in perinatal mental health and breastfeeding success, with recommendations for primary, secondary, and tertiary preventive strategies in Primary Care for comprehensive care of the postpartum woman and the mother-child dyad.