The practice of breastfeeding

Abstract

The practice of breastfeeding, it is agreed, is as old as human beings and, yet, over the past thirty years as scientific interest in the practice has revived, we have not endeavoured to study the practice in an environment where it is still the norm. On the other hand, theoretical questions like ‘How long can breast milk alone support a child?’ have been our concern; instead of ‘How do the people who have been and still practise breastfeeding deal with supplementation?’. The practice of breastfeeding must have worked over the centuries in these communities — why is it now breaking down? What can now be done to make it work?