Hi Kim
I very much doubt if handouts will achieve what your friend is trying to
achieve.  Behaviour change is difficult to achieve at the best of times and
when women are stressed, it takes all the more patience.
Your friend will need to spend time - plenty of time - listening to the
women she meets.  Mothers with very very few exceptions are trying to the
very best by their babies.  DO they believe colostrums is dirty or
contaminated?  Are they afraid they will not have enough milk?  Do they just
think this is the right way to feed babies?  Do they understand the risks?
What are the barriers to exclusive breastfeeding?  DO they have access to
social and emotional support to help them overcome difficulties.  One of the
pitfalls of relief/missionary work is that we take our western world
assumptions with us - it is worth remembering that familial ties are often
stronger than they are in the west.  Mothers are sometimes even less free to
make decisions that deviate from social norms outside the west so it is
important to find out who the influential women in a community are and
listen to what they have to say about feeding babies.  How receptive is the
community to outside helpers - or helpers from the west?  Have they been let
down before?  One strategy that is frequently used in emergency infant
feeding programmes is to train some of those influential women as
breastfeeding counsellors and set up mother to mother support groups.
(Email me if you want a link to the WHO UNICEF 40 hr course)
Have a look at UNICEF's Behaviour Change Toolkit.
http://www.unicef.org/influenzaresources/files/BCC_in_Emerg_chap1to8_2006.pd
f
It is a really good model for implementing behaviour change programmes
Nina Berry
Australia

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