Maternal Nutrition and Traditional Food Behavior in Haiti

Abstract

Rural Haitian nutrition has long been a matter of concern to health workers. The diet is seriously restricted and there is widespread malnutrition. This is especially striking among lactating women. The Haitian government, under François Duvalier, began comprehensive programs designed to alleviate some of the economic and technologic factors which limit the diet. An equally serious restricting influence on the diet, however, and an influence which has gone largely unnoticed, is the hot/cold classification of life-states and foods stemming from an adherence to humoral medicine. Even though belief in humoral medicine is widely and consistently held in rural Haiti, there is no apparent recognition of its impact on nutrition by those working in this field. There is no mention of this belief system in the available literature on Haiti. This study examines and delineates the impact of humoral medicine upon the diet of the lactating Haitian woman. The data indicate that practices stemming from this belief system have an even more serious limiting impact upon rural dietary behavior than the economic, technologic and environmental factors, and must, therefore, be considered in any nutritional intervention program for Haitians either in Haiti or abroad.

‘It is me who eats, to nourish him’: a mixed‐method study of breastfeeding in post‐earthquake Haiti

“…Reasons for breastfeeding include that breastfeeding is the best nutrition for the baby, it is a ‘natural’ process, and it would develop a stronger, healthier baby (Thomas & DeSantis 1995). Earlier studies have showed that although there was a diversity of opinions over the nature of food taboos, diet was a central concern (Wiese 1976; Dempsey & Geese 1983; Harris 1987). Most significantly, it is clear that ‘eating well’ is critical for the quality of the breast milk (Roman 2007) as was the time at which it was consumed: a mother eating late in the day was believed to cause diarrhoea in the breastfed child (Kirkpatrick & Cobb 1990).…”

Vietnamese behavioral and dietary precautions during confinement

“…Thus a number of foods may continue to be avoided for some time following the end of the traditional puerperium, due both to personal inclination and to infant feeding practices. -Studies elsewhere on puerperal dietary restrictions based on humoral pathology, including Malaysia (Wilson, 1973), India (Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, 1974;Sundaraj and Pereira, 1975) and Haiti (Wiese, 1976), suggest that the postparturient woman may be seriously at risk nutritionally. Food avoidances during the postpartum period tend to be the most critical ones imposed on women, since they usually are imposed for the longest period of time and are applied concurrently to the largest number of food items.…”

Les causes économiques et socio-politiques du passage de la régionalisation à la départementalisation en Haïti

“…17. Wiese (1976), King et al (1978), and others argued that inappropriate individual and cultural eating practices in Haiti may play important roles in maintaining lower nutrition levels than otherwise possible with available resources. The argument served as the basis for several nutrition education programs in Haiti.…”