Whatever area we're from, we all find that certain groups have different expectations and different backgrounds than our own.  And the ethno-cultural
practices differ even from one another -- that is Hispanics in one area may
have different expectations in San Francisco, than in Kansas.  Not because of
where they are now, but because of where they came from.  

Depending what the community norm was "back home" and what they see
around them now, and who their support people are, all color what they plan
to do now.  Hispanics from one part of Mexico have different backgrounds than
those from another.  China is a very big country, and the expectations the
women have here vary widely -- where in China did their mothers come from?
Bottle feeding has hit almost every area of the world, and how young women
of other cultures respond to bottles now is related heavily to how their mothers
related to bottles:

Cases in point:

I had a  young, educated, employed, Filipina who was breast feeding.  Her major support in this endeavor was not her mother, who had breast fed her own nine children.  Because growing up in the Phillipines in the country, it was very expensive to bottle feed, and therefore was a mark of class, or wealth, when a family could finally bottle feed.  So her mother  wants her to bottle feed, because she can "afford" it.  Fortunately this woman has a close woman friend, who successfully fed a first baby, and delivered her second not long ago -- so my patient had someone she was willing to use as a role model and mentor in
establishing breastfeeding.

I have many Chinese patients who feel they need to supplement with a bottle,
because their long cultural practice was that milk didn't come in for three days,
and so in the mean time they had to give their babies something.  It doesn't
matter that China is now breast-feeding friendly and supports breast feeding
right from the start.  These women (and their mothers) are here now, and want
to do things in the time-proven manner.

Lastly, I have Russian women, who are going to give the baby the breast during
the day time, followed by a bottle; and are going to bottle feed (and not pump
their breasts) at night.  Because that's what their mother's did in Russia, and it
worked just fine for them (for a month).

We have to start teaching these women about lactation and breastfeeding before
they arrive on our doorstep in labor.  We have to learn what patterns they are planning to use, and why  -- so our teaching can be to the point.

A joke, if I may -- a woman was preparing her Christmas dinner with her
daughter in law, teaching her how to prepare pork loin.  The first thing she
did was chop and inch of each of meat and throw it in the bottom of the pan.
The daughter-in-law asked her why.  She said she didn't know, that's the way
her mother taught her.  When the  whole family had gathered for dinner, she
asked Her mother why, and she too, responded that's jusst the way she learned from her mom.  The great-grandmother at this point grumbled from her end of
the table "That's the only way the roast would fit in the pan."

Chanita, in San Francisco