The power of support groups: influence on infant feeding trends in New Zealand

First-food systems transformations and the ultra-processing of infant and young child diets: The determinants, dynamics and consequences of the global rise in commercial milk formula consumption

The inappropriate marketing and aggressive promotion of breastmilk substitutes (BMS) undermines breastfeeding and harms child and maternal health in all country contexts. Although a global milk formula 'sales boom' is reportedly underway, few studies have investigated its dynamics and determinants. This study takes two steps. First, it describes trends and patterns in global formula sales volumes (apparent consumption), by country income and region. Data are reported for 77 countries, for the years 2005-19, and for the standard (0-6 months), follow-up (7-12 m), toddler (13-36 m), and special (0-6 m) categories. Second, it draws from the literature to understand how transformations underway in first-food systems - those that provision foods for children aged 0-36 months - explain the global transition to higher formula diets. Total world formula sales grew by 115% between 2005 and 2019, from 3.5 to 7.4 kg/child, led by highly-populated middle-income countries. Growth was rapid in South East and East Asia, especially in China, which now accounts for one third of world sales. This transition is linked with factors that generate demand for BMS, including rising incomes, urbanisation, the changing nature of woman's work, social norms, media influences and medicalisation. It also reflects the globalization of the baby food industry and its supply chains, including the increasing intensity and sophistication of its marketing practices. Policy and regulatory frameworks designed to protect, promote and support breastfeeding are partially or completely inadequate in the majority of countries, hence supporting industry expansion over child nutrition. The results raise serious concern for global child and maternal health.

Interaction of factors related to lactation duration

Perceived social support and interpersonal dependency were studied as potential factors associated with lactation duration based upon previous breastfeeding experience. Inexperienced breastfeeding mothers perceived more social support than experienced breastfeeding mothers did. Perceived social support was not significantly correlated with lactation duration. An ancillary finding was that women providing a combination of breast milk and human milk substitutes had significantly lower social self-confidence than did mothers providing breast milk exclusively.

Sources and acceptance of infant-feeding advice among low-income women

The purpose of this study is to identify sources and acceptability of infant-feeding advice among participants in the US-based Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Focus groups are used to identify sources of infant-feeding advice and factors that contribute to acceptance of or resistance to that advice among 65 WICeligible mothers (34 English speaking and 31 Spanish speaking). The mothers primarily rely on experienced family and friends for advice and frequently use their own intuition to find solutions that work to solve real or perceived infant-feeding problems. Professional advice is perceived as credible when caregivers exhibit characteristics similar to those of experienced family and friends: confidence, empathy, respect, and calm. Using this information, it may be possible for WIC staff to make programmatic modifications to increase their ability to promote optimal infant-feeding behaviors in this population, thereby contributing to the reduction in the prevalence of childhood overweight.

Medicalization and women's knowledge: the construction of understandings of infant feeding experiences in post-WW II New Zealand

For most of the twentieth century infant feeding knowledge has been constructed by medical scientists and health professionals. However, for a short time around the 1970s, New Zealand women (re)claimed the power to author their own knowledge based upon experience. This coincided with a dramatic return to breastfeeding on a national scale. Using New Zealand women's narratives of their infant feeding experiences over the past 50 years, this article brings to the foreground the importance of women's subjective construction of knowledge, their positioning within it, and the suppression of rudimentary discourses when that power is removed or relinquished in the process of remedicalization.