Part five: Breast and bottle feeding in an inner‐city community: An assessment of perceptions and practices

Abstract

Breast feeding is least prevalent among the urban poor, the group whose infants stand to gain the most benefit from that practice. To assess attitudes and influences contributing to this low prevalence of nursing, 141 inner‐city mothers were interviewed. One hundred and four (74 percent) bottle fed and thirty‐seven (26 percent) breast fed their younger child. Breast feeders arc generally older, better educated, and report living with a male more often than bottle feeders. Preferences of the child's father are closely correlated with the mother's feeding practice. Women who themselves were breast fed are more likely to nurse their first born, but not subsequent children. Large differences in the prevalence of nursing exist between cultural subgroups within a single community. Women most often bottle fed to avoid embarrassment associated with nursing in public; breast feeders most often nurse for nutritional benefits. Of the breast feeders, 67 percent received verbal approval of plans to nurse from health professionals, while of the bottle feeders, 66 percent apparently were not informed of the benefits of nursing. The health care community has not yet taken on a responsibility to actively foster breast feeding in the inner‐city.