J. P. Lederach's Culture: Exclusive Breastfeeding

Thesis statement: Doctors and nurses around the world always recommend women to breastfeed their babies for the first six months at least. They suggest that breastfeeding has many psychological and physical benefits for both mother and her baby. Also, they realize that the rates of women who breastfeed their babies due to various factors.

However, the truth is that the United States of America are not included in those places. This topic has been raised very frequently in the debates that breastfeed milk is better than synthetic and bottled milk by many scientists and health professionals. Even the mothers, who understand the importance of breastfeeding also, prefer the easy and comfortable way of feeding kids with bottled milk. And many women does that because they don’t feel comfortable doing that in public. The question is, if it is worth cooperating the children health and growth by not providing the mother’s milk, and opting easy way out with bottled milk or due to fear of confrontation. Some people may also feel that even if mothers want to breastfeed their toddlers, and they aren’t bothering anyone they should do it the way they like, because for them breastfeeding is more satisfying and they get the feel of more caring towards their kids.

Breast feeding has been in practice for a very long time, as early as 2000 BC. Before the invention of formula, bottles, and pumps this was the safest most common way for a mother to feed their infants. In fact, for 99% of human history breast milk was the sole source of nutrition for children until the age of two. In today’s society there are many different and opposing personal stand points on where or not a mother should breast feed their children. It is a very controversial topic with many variables. In breast feeding there are several benefits, reasons, and cultural effects that go into making the decision to engage or stay away from breast feeding. There is also historical causes and cultural differences that lead influence a mothers

The audience intended for this paper are mothers that have a desire to breastfeed, employers, clinicians, breastfeeding advocacy groups and federal and state legislators involved in policy change.

The World Health Organization suggests that mothers solely breastfeed for the first six months of life, and continue to use breast milk to supplement the child’s diet for up to two years and beyond. Despite this being encouraged all around the world, the percentage of mothers who actually follow this advice is only high in developing countries. In these countries, over 99% of mothers typically begin breastfeeding newborns, and many children continue to be breastfed through their second year (Brown, 2015). In developed countries, the percentage drops drastically. In the UK, and similarly in America, Australia, and much of Europe, the percentage of mothers who begin breastfeeding is high, 81%, but the percentage drops to just 55% at six weeks. Norway experienced similar percentages in the 1970s, but there has been a culture change that has led to 98% of mothers breastfeeding at

In this article, “The Ideal and the Real of Breast-Feeding” by Jane E. Brody, Brody brings some good points to light. The campaign to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months in today’s society is becoming increasingly prevalent by health care providers, lactation consultants, and other organizations. Brody’s notable outlook on breastfeeding stems from her own personal experiences with her twin boys. The ever increasing numbers of reasons one should breastfeed and how important it is for the health of the child to continue to grow. As the textbook, “How Children Develop” by Robert Siegler, shows it is a natural life source. Mammals use breast milk as a source of nutrition for their young. Humans have become more reliant on formula feeding.

“Breast feeding rates in developed countries such as the UK, Australia and the US are typically lower than World Health Organisation goals” Parkinson (2010) 3. From a study carried out by Queensland university stressed the importance of not only the delivery of literature on how effective breastfeeding is for your babies health but that what was also needed to increase the number of breast feeders was to give personal support and explains social and environmental benefits also. When they looked at the UK in particular, Parkinson (2010) 3 stated “women already understood that breastfeeding was good for their baby, and what they needed were the tools to help them to breastfeed longer. From this it is clear that although effective and sufficient information around the benefits of the child is being addressed, there is no sufficient information or skills being given direct to the parents in order for them to carry this out for any length of time. Another piece of research was carried out in 2010 on ways to change the paradigm of breastfeeding, from encouraging promotion of breast feeding within the employment setting.

According to World Health Organization (WHO, 2016), Breastfeeding is the standard and natural method of delivering young infants with the adequate nutrients that is needed and required for healthy growth and development. Breast milk is the best and optimal nutrition for infants, in which there are health benefits for both the infants, mothers, families and communities as whole. According to Rockville the (2011), most women in the United States are aware that, breastfeeding is the optimum source of nutrition for most infants, but lack of adequate knowledge and information about its detailed benefits and the risks associated with not breastfeeding.

There has been a trend developing that moves women away from breastfeeding their children despite the benefits of immunity and nutrients for optimal growth for infants. According to the article, “Breastfeeding and Culture,” the three main forces that work together for this movement is the change in economies that now focus more on money and having the wife be a husband's social partner, a belief that science will provide better for a child then a mother's own body, and commercialism that makes women feel as if breastfeeding is primitive, shameful, or unhealthy. These factors play a huge role in many different cultures for women when deciding if they should breastfeed their child or not. Particularly from Western influence and the effect of media, educated upper class women of many

Various researches exists in the health care premises to determine the best policies that will promote the utilization of resources within healthcare. However, some research work that utilizes social scientific methods fails to focus on exploring maternal ambiguity and ambivalence. Rather, the paradigm informing the majority research about infants feeding practices remains a public health perspective. From that perspective, many studies tend to explore why women do not initiate breastfeeding. Again, it suggests some options why women do not breastfeed for the recommended period. Thus, it is imperative to recommend the appropriate interventions to change maternal behaviour. The work remains the most accurately considered advocacy research as its purposes help the overall public in some ways. It gives additional weight to arguments for devoting more governmental resources to breastfeeding promotion. A small number of studies have utilized social sciences methods to generate valuable insights about the tension between policy and maternal practices and experience.

Breastfeeding provides many nutrients that the child needs in order to grow. Breast milk has many more nutrients to help a child’s immune system more effectively than formula milk (www.nrdc.org, 2005). It has been proven that breastfeeding can help an infant from coming in contact with diseases later on in life, helps the mother lose weight, and is also a cheaper way to feed the child (www.nrdc.org, 2005). This can be very vital information to know because this can help a lot more mothers become educated in breastfeeding their children rather than using formula. In recent findings on breastfeeding it was found that children who are breastfed longer as an infant were less likely to become obese in the future (Carling and Feldman-Winter, 2014). It was believed that breastfeeding allowed the child to discover proper eating habits due to microscopic substances in the breast milk the helped regulate metabolism, in which the child can then learn how to control the food intake as they got older (Carling and Feldman-Winter, 2014). This is very important because mothers can help prevent their child from becoming overweight or obese. It’s recommended that mother’s breastfed for more than four months, while this can be challenging between mothers who work or mothers who are not educated about breastfeeding, support groups and help are available for these mothers (Carling and

In correlation to not being able to breastfeed, there are also many other factors including racial and cultural influences which shape the way a mother chooses to provide for her infant. In fact through one study it was shown that women in Asian countries breastfeed more than those here in the United States. This difference can also be shown through different economic standings; the majority of women who breastfeed often arise from the middle class. This is due to the fact that these women are more able to meet breastfeeding demands as they do not have to return to work right away, unlike those in lower economic standings. Not only does this perspective reveal the societal pressures on new mothers and differences among infant care, but it also discusses how the public has often been misinformed when it comes to the advantages of breastfeeding. More times than not, the benefits of breastfeeding are based on faulty scientific studies which often fail to account for other potential factors that aid in development. In addition many advocates fail to mention the aspects of breastmilk that are not very advantageous, such as environmental toxins. Though this perspective agrees with the fact that breastmilk is a good source of nourishment, it argues that promotion of this practice usually leaves mothers feeling convicted when they are unable to

This paper about the research of people forms School of Community Health Science to exam the relationship between breastfeeding initiation and duration under supportive breastfeeding law at the level of the state. They use 3 measure of breastfeeding practices such as a report of breastfeeding infant, mother's breastfeeding initiation and report of infants being breastfed for at least months, these data were collected under eight supportive breastfeeding laws. That research provides an evidence-based date to determine the necessary of government action to protect, promote and support breastfeeding to reach the goal of breastfeeding initiation and duration in 2020.

“Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers” Statement taken from the world health organization publication on the nutrition of exclusive breastfeeding.

Any infant enters the world completely relying on their mother, whether it’s to provide security, comfort, or their first meal. Breastfeeding, although pretty self-explanatory, is the act of a woman feeding a baby with milk from her breast. It is recommended that a baby be breastfed for the first time within an hour of their birth and exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life (Belsky, 2012). However, there is a stigma attached to breastfeeding in some areas of the world, especially the United States, so a common alternative is formula. There are many benefits not only the infant can gain from being breastfed, but also benefits the mother can obtain from providing this nutrition for her child. This paper will discuss