Cultural considerations for breastfeeding among Latina women

I am looking forward to being part of an expert panel on cultural issues with breastfeeding at next week’s ABM meeting. I plan to talk aboutpostpartum customs, special foods, importance of elders and fathers, galactogogues and other beliefs as they relate to breastfeeding in Latinas. I will also describe some examples from Central and South American countries of why not all Latinas are alike.

I will share published work on the practice of combination feeding—why los dos…and suggest some strategies for avoiding unnecessary supplementation.  I also have some interesting observations from my recent field work with home visitors in rural Guatemala. Other topics will be the assumptions for some Latinas in the US that breastfeeding for 3 months is enough, nursing babies too long can make them weak or ill-mannered. I continue to see in my clinical work and research that self-efficacy and prenatal intent is so important for exclusivity. Happy to hear any ideas you have on this topic. Hope to see you in Cleveland next week.

Maya Bunik, MD, MSPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Colorado, Children’s Hospital Colorado. She sees patients in both primary care and breastfeeding consultation and has published a book Breastfeeding Telephone Triage and Advice. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and serves as the Protocol Committee Co-Chair.

She is a featured speaker at the ABM 19th International Meeting, November 13-16, 2014.

Blog posts reflect the opinions of individual authors, not ABM as a whole.