Grandmothers: Central scaffolding sources impacting maternal and infant feeding practices in Colombia

Abstract

A growing body of evidence highlights that maternal and child nutrition programmes need to extend beyond the mother–child dyad by adopting a family systems approach, particularly in the Global South. Guided by a sociocultural and community psychology understanding of health, the paper explores factors identifying grandmothers as central resources for nutrition programmes. The study was conducted in a Colombian urban periphery applying a qualitative longitudinal design (prenatal and postpartum). It is based on interviews with adolescent mothers and mothers in their 20s ( n = 35 at T1; n = 21 at T2), grandmothers ( n = 15 at T1; n = 12 at T2) and community/public stakeholders ( n = 17). Many of the participants live in low‐income households headed by grandmothers, who adjust feeding practices to the extent of their economic capacity. Findings reveal grandmothers play a central role in decision‐making and in enabling a holistic support system for the dyad. This is defined as grandmothers' scaffolding; it covers nutrition advice, breastfeeding and infant feeding, cultural practices, caregiving and maternal mental health. The study helps build the evidence‐base for the transferability of a family systems approach to Global South regions by using sociocultural and community psychology concepts to fortify the rationale for including grandmothers in maternal and child nutrition programmes. It argues for the need to continue raising the visibility of key actors like grandmothers and for nutrition programmes to align themselves more flexibly with the needs of families experiencing poverty.

Intrahousehold power inequalities and cooperation: Unpacking household responses to nutrition‐sensitive agriculture interventions in rural India

“…This is consistent with a growing body of work showing the importance of grandmothers(Concha & Jovchelovitch, 2021), other women(Usman et al, 2021) and spouses(Morrison et al, 2021) in shaping maternal and child nutrition-related behaviours, and in increasing the impact of behaviour change interventions (Narayanan…”

“…Cooperation may occur in several ways, for example, by sharing risk and information, sharing tasks and gains from agricultural production and sharing the responsibilities of raising children. Some studies have highlighted men's role in supporting their wife's access to antenatal and post‐natal care (Barua et al, 2004 ; Morrison et al, 2021 ), and their children's access to an adequate diet (Han et al, 2019 ; Nyqvist & Jayachandran, 2017 ), while a growing literature has highlighted the role of grandmothers in improving nutrition outcomes (Aubel, 2012 ; Concha & Jovchelovitch, 2021 ; Negin et al, 2016 ).…”

Feeding, food, and attachment: An underestimated relationship?

“…This high grandmaternal involvement in primary care reflects traditional values of familismo (Sotomayor‐Peterson et al., 2012) and stands in contrast to the rather fun‐providing grandmother role observed in Western contexts (Sandel et al., 2006; Sticker, 1991). Furthermore, whereas a study conducted in Los Angeles, US, and Berlin, Germany, revealed that grandmothers adapt their ethnotheories to their children's opinions (Keller and Demuth, 2006), grandmothers are considered important sources of advice in our sample, consistent with research in other non‐Western contexts (e.g., Concha and Jovchelovitch, 2021; Kerr et al., 2008). These differences to urban WEIRD contexts clearly show that urban Western and urban non‐Western families are distinct cultural contexts with different developmental conditions and that the study of different contexts is essential in examining universal assumptions about child development.…”

Beyond the mother-child dyad: Is co-residence with a grandmother associated with adolescent girls’ family planning knowledge?

“…A 2021 special issue in Maternal & Child Nutrition compiled 11 articles that contribute evidence supporting the application of family systems framework to inform nutrition programs [ 21 ]. Several studies identify grandmothers as key influencers of health knowledge within the household and conclude that child nutrition interventions might benefit by intentionally including them [ 21 – 25 ]. For instance, Pike et al found that pregnant adolescents in Bangladesh reported feeling overwhelmed and inadequate to make decisions for themselves as young, first time mothers.…”