Pam wrote: "This mother is a Hispanic mom from Peru, but has lived most of
her life here in the states.  She grew up VERY close to her father until a
bitter divorce.  There was a period of time she was not in his life.  Now
they have a solid relationship and she looks up to him."

When I read people's comments that the mother should do whatever she wants
to do, I thought: If only it were that simple. Just a month ago I gave a
presentation on culture and breastfeeding. After we had talked about
various cultural dimensions, including social relationships, the
participants in my session could clearly see the cultural conflict inherent
in my example of a lactation consultant with an individualistic worldview
saying, "It's your baby. Just do what you want." to a mother with a
collectivistic worldview struggling with unhelpful breastfeeding advice
from her family. The mother that Pam is working with has a cultural
heritage that is strongly collectivistic--a factor in her relationship with
her father that must be taken into account if suggestions from a lactation
consultant are going to be effective. "It's your baby. Just do what you
want."--or some version thereof--is very unlikely to be a helpful
suggestion to this mother--no matter how much sense it makes to those of us
with an individualistic worldview.

My article, "The cultural art of breastfeeding," might provide some ideas
and insights on why telling a mother some version of "Just do what you
want" is sometimes very effective and sometimes very ineffective. It can be
read from the publications page of my website.

Forever struggling to be effective in the context of our diverse world,

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab, MS, IBCLC
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell

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