--- Pamela Morrison IBCLC <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 20:19:07 -0200 (GMT)
> To: [log in to unmask]
> From: Pamela Morrison IBCLC <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Breastfeeding failure
>
> Dear Kate
>
> Just seen your Lactnet post - unfortunately I cannot
> reply to Lactnet as my
> email address has changed, but maybe you could copy
> to Lactnet for me??
>
> You ask if mothers in Africa experience a 4%
> breastfeeding failure rate? I
> feel sure others will respond, and Kathy Dettwyler
> is probably the best
> person to answer for West Africa. In Zimbabwe over
> 99% of mothers initiate
> breastfeeding and it is my impression that
> breastfeeding failure amongst the
> African population is very very low. However, since
> I work with the
> "problems", and work with all races and
> nationalities, I do know that
> primary lactation failure in the mother, and failure
> to thrive in the baby
> can occur. And that African babies can suffer from
> cleft lip/palate, and any
> of the physical conditions and abnormalities that
> negatively affect a baby's
> ability to breastfeed, just as these conditions
> occur in other populations.
> So physically, Yes, African mothers and babies
> experience the same problems
> as Europeans.
>
> However, when it comes to what I call "maternal
> motivation" it is a
> completely different story. Because there are very
> negative cultural
> beliefs about African mothers who do not breastfeed
> their babies, it seems
> to me that these mothers are extremely highly
> motivated to "fix" the
> ordinary day to day difficulties of initiating and
> maintaining
> breastfeeding, which their lighter-skinned sisters
> are frequently not so
> driven to resolve, knowing that in European
> populations formula is easily
> accessible and socially acceptable. I am a BFHI
> Assessor and during
> Assessments I have watched African mothers in the
> ordinary simple City
> Health Clinics doggedly trying over and over again
> to latch a difficult baby
> - the last time I saw this I couldn't bear it any
> longer and did a quick
> latch-assisting session in the middle of the
> Assessment - but the point is
> that the African mothers just keep on persevering
> with infinite patience
> until things come right. African mothers are also
> expected to pop the breast
> into the baby's mouth any time it squeaks too, so
> that "routines" and
> stretched-out feeding intervals and shortened
> breastfeeds are almost
> unknown. Thus when a breastfeeding problem does
> occur it usually start out
> as a baby-problem (small, weak, premature) and
> *then* becomes a mom-problem
> (compromised breastmilk supply) if you see what I
> mean.
>
> My personal experience leads me to believe that only
> about one in a thousand
> mothers are physically unable to produce any
> breastmilk, so that neither
> breastfeeding, nor breastmilk-feeding can take
> place. Of the three mothers
> (out of 2500 that I have worked with in the last 10
> years) who experienced
> no milk production at all from birth two were
> African, one was European.
> The three most heart-stopping cases of
> failure-to-thrive I have ever worked
> with, e g up to 30% loss of birth weight, were also
> with African babies too.
>
> Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe
> new email address:[log in to unmask]
>
=====
Kate Hallberg,http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/ mom to Ursula (6!), Sage (almost 4) and Benno (12-31-00) http://www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/reg/register_topic.gsp?auth_id=97400 Above all else: Sky.
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