REASONS FOR FAILURE OF BREAST-FEEDING COUNSELING - MOTHERS PERSPECTIVES IN BANGLADESH

During the hospitalization in the Dhaka hospital of the international Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, of a group of part ially breast-fed infants aged 1-12 weeks who had been admitted with ac ute diarrhoea, their mothers were individually counselled by breast-fe eding counsellors to start exclusive breastfeeding. The counselling wa s repeated I week later at home, and the women's infant-feeding practi ces were evaluated 2 weeks after their infants had been discharged fro m hospital. A total of 25% of the mothers failed to breast-feed exclus ively despite having been counselled. The case studies of these mother s illustrate that although they generally complained about having ''in sufficient breast milk', various factors such as domineering grandmoth ers, lack of financial support by their husbands, too much housework, or disinterest contributed to their failure to breast-feed exclusively . While family support is essential for all lactating mothers, women w ith familial or financial problems require special attention and extra counselling sessions so that they can be helped to identify how to ac hieve and sustain exclusive breast-feeding.