Cathy Bargar writes:

> They have been
>raised with all knowledge of childbirth and breastfeeding and baby care
>being kept far from them. They often find it embarassing to discuss BFing at
>all. And even women who have given birth to a previous child in their home
>countries are quite without a clue what to do with their babies born here.
>It appears to me that for many of these women, anything pertaining to this
>whole realm is somehow not-nice, and that "respectable" young women are
>sheltered from such knowledge - even when they have had their own babies.
>That this open and community-based experience of BFing is maybe for
>"peasants", but not for more educated or wealthy women.


A local study done with our Bangladeshi community (from a rural propulation
in Bangladesh) found that (this is from memory, sorry)

* women who gave birth to a first child  in their home village were likely
to have bf for 18 months and often more (scale only went up to 18 months,
sadly, IIRC), but if they gave birth here to a second child, bf would be
more likely to last a few weeks only, and excl. bf was almost unknown
* bf is more difficult here for all sorts of reasons, one of which was that
the small living spaces (and no opportunity for being outdoors) meant that
men and women were living in closer promximity than in the home village,
and it was not considered acceptable to bf in front of men...so formula was
used
* the ready availability of formula, and the relative affluence of their
circumstances, meant that formula was given in the very first days, often
in hospital
* formula was given in the absence of traditional pre-lacteal feeds for two
to three days
* there is no *religious* taboo on colostrum, and when the right support
and education is given, Asian mothers give colostrum, and don't worry about
pre-lacteal feeds
* formula feeding had high status with some women and with some grandmothers

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne

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