Nina, you are _so_ right! And Chauntelle, I'm sorry that cultural sharing on LACTNET is upsetting you today :-( In Zimbabwe I worked as a private practice LC and my clients came from all ethnic, racial and cultural groups. Breastfeeding initiation was 99.6% nationally, and 94% of babies were still breastfed at one year of age. Indigenous Zimbabwean women were most likely to breastfeed, and only needed technical help. White Zimbabweans (often third generation, originally of English or South African stock) needed lots of advocacy and encouragement, and technical help, but they mostly "complied" with hospital policies and the recommendations of their paediatricians to breastfeed, at least in the early months, and many of them went on to do it by the book for the full two years. Indian mothers and the Coloured community had a bit more trouble, and would often supplement early. Expatriate mothers were a very mixed bag, and I learned to expect anything. I was non-plussed to work once with a French-speaking West African mother having her second baby who complained about being expected to breastfeed at all - it turned out her first baby had been born in Paris and had been given a bottle in the delivery room, which I found really shocking! Americans of all colours and from North or South, as well as German, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Australian, N Zealand and Israeli mothers were usually well motivated to breastfeed. Italians and Spanish, Serbian and Russian were definitely tricky, as were Belgians. The most difficult were those who spoke with an English or Irish accent, and it was a special buzz to help them overcome their cultural fastidiousness - and now that I live in England I know exactly where they got it .... One of the most gratifying comments I ever received was from a French mother who went on to breastfeed her baby for months and months and then told me she was so glad her baby had been born in Zimbabwe because if she had had her baby "at home" she never would have even considered breastfeeding, and would never have known how lovely it could be. What can we conclude from all the different stories of different myths and beliefs and practices? Probably Jim Akre summed it up best when he said that it's not women who breastfeed, but cultures that do so. And clearly, a mother's cultural background may be so strong that its influence survives being transplanted to a new country or a new place with strange, new practices. But sometimes it just doesn't, and she will adopt whatever feeding method is presented as most "endorsed" and attractive in the new environment. I've lived in eight countries now - ultimately, I have to conclude that a country's top-down official breastfeeding policy (or lack thereof) is the most important influence. Sadly .... Pamela Morrison IBCLC Rustington, England -------------------------------------------- while working as a social worker with asylum seekers (not only from africa but from all over the world), i experienced big differences between mothers from francophone and anglophone african countries, but thats another story. *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome