Now I'm going to say something that is going to get me into very hot water,
I just know it.  I will start off by saying that what I am about to say
obviously does not apply to every Indian physician.

India is a country with a class system.  Those who become doctors are
usually from the upper and middle classes.  Those who are not from the upper
and middle classes, a distinct minority, have often adopted the others'
attitudes in order to "fit in".  The wealthy have many attitudes which are
similar from country to country and culture to culture, and an attitude
which almost universal is that the poor are the lowest of the low and
anything they do is not worth emulating.  In India, the poor almost all
breastfeed and do so for a long time (though they have problems too--they
just have no options like the rich.  What Attie wrote about the doctor's
saying women don't have problems in India just shows how ignorant s/he is.).
But the middle and upper classes breastfeed very little or not at all.  They
have "western" attitudes about breastfeeding.

My personal experience with physicians from India is that they have nothing
but disdain for anything other than token breastfeeding, though they make a
big deal about being supportive of breastfeeding.  This attitude occurs
everywhere, but, in my experience is more common amongst Indian physicians,
probably because the class system is so much more entrenched.

I'm up the creek and am waiting for hundreds of angry emails.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC