Perceção sobre a importância do aleitamento materno pelas mães e dificuldades enfrentadas no processo de amamentação

Background: The breastfeeding (BF) offers proven benefits to both mother and baby. Objective: To understand the perceptions of mothers about the importance of breastfeeding and to identify the main difficulties of breastfeeding and/or its maintenance. Methodology: Cross-sectional, descriptive study of quantitative nature with 50 mothers of children registered in 2 primary health units of Coari - Amazonas, Brazil. A semi-structured interview script was used. The analysis was performed using the Excel 2010 software and IBM SPSS Statistics, version 23.0. Results: The perceptions of mothers about BF were positive, 40 (80%) described the benefits to the mother correctly, and 42 (84%) to the child, 23 (46%) reported difficulties in the process of breastfeeding, in which the most frequent were the breast engorgement and lesions of the nipple (13; 56.5%). Conclusion: The mothers demonstrated knowledge about the importance of breastfeeding. Breast engorgement and lesions of the nipple were the most frequently reported difficulties, which may be reversed through the correct orientation by health professionals