In‐depth study of breastfeeding structure: New data from Mali

Abstract

A number of variables, including ethnic affiliation, time of day, infant and maternal ages, and infant dietary supplementation, are used to compare their effects on breastfeeding structure of two groups of rural Malian women. The agro-fishing Bozo and the transhumant pastoralist Fulbe live in the Inner Niger Delta of Mali. On-demand breastfeeding is practiced by these groups. Lactation continues throughout the infant's second year of life and often into the third. Comparisons are made with data from other traditional societies to highlight differences in breastfeeding structure and its determinants. Ethnic affiliation does not have any significant effect on nursing variables, and the suckling patterns of the Fulbe and Bozo women are comparable in this study. Suckling activity does not vary according to time of day, although individual women exhibit different temporal patterns of nursing behavior. Infant age is significantly and negatively correlated to session duration. As infants get older and their diets are supplemented with food other than breastmilk, their appetites decrease and, consequently, they suckle less. However, there is much individual variation in this relationship, and it is argued that the decrease in suckling due to supplementation may be offset by an increase in suckling due to infants demanding the breast for physical affection. Maternal age, in contrast, is not correlated with any nursing variable in this study. This indicates that there is no decrease in physiological capacity to provide milk and that access to surrogate caretakers is either not correlated with maternal age, or is not a strategy employed by these women. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:179-190, 1998. © 1998 There is an abundance of available information on the topic of breastfeeding and weaning practices (Cantrelle and Leridon,

Longitudinal study of the frequency and duration of breastfeeding in rural Bangladeshi women

“…However, the average number of feeding bouts remained lower among the rural sample compared to the urban one during the first-year follow-up, al-though the trend in declining frequency was comparable (Rahman, 1996). The decline in breastfeeding with increase in infant's age was observed in many other studies (Worthman et al, 1993;Gray, 1994;Marriott, 1998), and is expected after the introduction of supplementary feeding. In the Bangladesh population, supplementary food is usually introduced at about months 2-3, and may have lowered the breastfeeding episodes.…”

“…Contrasting associations between maternal age and breastfeeding patterns of infants were found in various traditional populations around the world. Marriott (1998) found no effect of maternal age on duration and frequency of breastfeeding for a small sample of Bozo and Fulbe women. Gray (1994), on the contrary, found a significant relationship between maternal age and episodes per session, and a negative although nonsignificant relationship with episode duration among Turkana pastoralists.…”

“…Infant feeding practices vary widely within and between populations and countries for a variety of reasons, including cultural factors and socioeconomic status (Almedom, 1991;Panter-Brick, 1992;Gray, 1994;Guldan et al, 1995;Ahmad and Alam, 1996;Chhabra et al, 1998;Marriott, 1998;Mahgoub et al, 2002;Giashuddin and Kabir, 2004). Current knowledge indicates that cultural preferences of infant feeding run counter to public health and clinical recommendations (Lawrence, 1994;Dettwyler, 1995).…”