Dear Stephanie:
What a challenge! Some quick thoughts for anyone working with mothers who
are from a different cultural background and who are breastfeeding and
mothering in the context of very challenging life situations are:
1. listen a lot
2. take a look at pp. 61-83 of Breastfeeding and Human Lactation by Riordan
and Auerbach (1999)
3. find a way to incorporate peer counselors into your work
4. contact women's shelter's for input on how to more effectively work with
mothers in the kinds of challenging life situations you described
5. read up on the topics you're unfamiliar with (from cultural in general
[e.g., my recent article], to the particular culture(s) of the women, to
homelessness, to drug abuse, to sexual abuse...)--in your, no doubt,
abundant spare time : )
6. make friends within the community that you're working with (call up the
director of a community center, take someone to lunch, ask for help,
participate in community events)--they can provide support and ideas that
will be invaluable in your work
7. be prepared to make many "cultural" mistakes--you're only human, you
can't know everything, and there's so much to learn. You can only do what
you can do.
8. put things out on the table so mothers know they can be talked about:
for example, prejudice and how their experience of it may affect how they
view you and your interaction
9. ask questions: what are their goals, what are their obstacles, what are
ways around those obstacles
10. create a good support system for yourself--this will be very hard work
Best wishes,
Cynthia Good Mojab, MS Clinical Psychology
(Breastfeeding mother, advocate, independent [cross-cultural] researcher
and author; LLL Leader and Research Associate in the LLLI Publications
Department; and former psychotherapist currently busy nurturing her own
little one.)
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://ammawell.homepage.com
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