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Date: | Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:47:49 EDT |
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Vicki Getty recently posted a summary of the California breastfeeding report,
in which she repeated that report's information that the lowest BF rates in
the US are among mothers of SE asian ethnicity; the report itself lists, I
think, 35% of SEA mothers bf at all and only 15% exclusively.
I am curious about this. I have heard the same basic facts before -- that
Chinese mothers, in that version, just didn't bf. But I wonder how true this
is. It's my understanding that some Chinese, at least, are among the cultural
groups that believe colostrum to be bad for babies; in these societies
normally babies are fed something else (or nursed by someone else) until their
mother's milk comes in, and then they are bf. But in the US, where bf rates
are "counted" on hospital discharge, when hardly any mothers' milk is in yet,
surely all of these women would be "counted" in the non-bf column, when they
might well go on to bf extensively for all we know. Certainly I have never
heard that there is less bf going on in South East Asia -- Meredith Small's
recent book as a whole chapter on the attachment parenting norms in Japan,
where according to her virtually all kids sleep with their moms and are bf
until around 2.
Is there anyone on the list who has worked with east asian mothers in the US
and can comment on this? Or anyone who knows of any research on this
population and its infant feeding habits? Or anyone her/himself of SE Asian
background or a speaker of some EA languags and can ask acquaintances about
this? Or has any other insights here?
Thanks--
Elisheva
Elisheva S. Urbas
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