Studies conducted in validation of nursing diagnoses are very useful to the clinical practice. They can precisely establish the patient problems addressing the nursing procedures and the quality of nursing interventions delivered to the patient. The aim of the study was to identify and validate on clinical setting the defining characteristics of the ineffective breastfeeding nursing diagnosis according to North American Nursing Diagnosis Association.This is an analytical descriptive study wich was developed at a puerperium unit and a Nursing Outpatient Unit of the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) - Brazil. Sample comprises 124 women and their children in breastfeeding process. Data collection was through nursing visit carried out with mother-child binomial by using a previously elaborated and tested tool. Most of the women were single, primiparae, ranged from 20 to 29 years old, and had incomplete 1st Grade of elementary school. The most frequently identified defining characteristics were: "unsatisfactory lactation process", "sore nipple in the first week" and "lack of sustained breast sucking". Findings allowed to conclude that defining characteristics proposed by NANDA for "ineffective breastfeeding" diagnosis were clinicaly validated.
Nursing diagnosis; Breastfeeding; Validation studies
