In my future endeavors in the field of early childhood I want to explore as many outlets or venues in order to support and teach how to raise happy and healthy children. 0-3 are the most important ages to and breast feeding is something that always interested me. I think that in this country there is an uncomfortable atmosphere with the female body and this is not a topic typically explored. When it is in the press this is usually for shock value. "One of the first commercial breastmilk substitutes
was invented in 1867. The product was a mixture of
toasted flour and condensed milk marketed by a
Swiss food company1. At that time, most infants who
were fed breastmilk substitutes did not survive. For
example, in a region of Germany where the majority
of children were fed a mixed gruel of flour and water
to replace breastmilk, fifty percent of infants died; as
a result the infant mortality rate in this region was
four times the infant mortality rate in Norway, where
breastfeeding was the norm2.
When commercial breastmilk substitutes became
more available in Europe and North America, the
practice of breastfeeding began to decline at alarming
rates. As birth rates in industrialized countries
dropped, manufacturers of breastmilk substitutes
sought out new markets; developing countries, with
high birth rates, became an attractive market to baby
food manufacturers. By the end of World War II, many
infant food manufacturing companies were selling
their breastmilk substitutes in countries under colonial
rule in Africa and Asia." (UNICEF: Protecting Breast Feeding in West andd Central Africa)

I  wanted to do my blog this week on breast feeding around the world. I was "lucky enough" to come across the "shocking" picture of the mother on Time magazine and wonder why this bothered everyone so much. Personally, I don't think breast feeding at this age had much value for the child but it would not be the first time that I was wrong. According to the article the mother has 3 boys and has breast fed them all until they were 18 months old. My question is are we so accustomed to our beliefs and ways in this country we are just shocked and appalled that a woman would decide to for her child to take part in a process such as breast feeding at such a late age.

 "Breastfeeding is a universal practice in West and Central
Africa. Breastfeeding initiation rates are above 90
percent in all countries (with the exception of Gabon)
and children are breastfed for a long time as reflected
by the fact that the mean duration of breastfeeding
in West and Central African countries is 20
months. However, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding
is lower than in any other region in the world: in West
and Central Africa, only 20 percent of infants younger
than six months are exclusively breastfed, with rates
of exclusive breastfeeding as low as 2 percent in
Chad, 4 percent in Sierra Leone, and 5 percent in
Côte d’Ivoire. However, some countries in the region
have shown remarkable progress in the proportion
of infants younger than six months who are exclusively
breastfed; between 1990 and 2004, exclusive
breastfeeding rates increased from 3 percent to 19
percent in Burkina Faso, 7 percent to 24 percent in
Cameroon, 4 percent to 53 percent in Ghana, 9 percent
to 25 percent in Mali," (UNICEF: Protecting Breast Feeding in West and Central Africa)
Reference
(UNICEF: Protecting Breast Feeding in West and Central Africa)