Breast is best!

We all know breast is best. It must be because its good enough for our new prince. It reduces mums' risk of breast cancer, helps them lose baby weight, it improves baby immunity, it's free, reduces tummy bugs, is always the right temperature and makes healthier, smarter and less obese children. In Britain we struggle to get rates of breast feeding high enough. This is not so in Sarenga; here they love it.

On ward rounds if a mother has problems breast feeding our stern, though somewhat incompetent, nurse Tina takes the wheel. She knows what to do and she has done it before. Plunging her hand into the mother's sari she pulls out a breast and squeezes to prove the well is not dry. She then takes the baby and smooshes it face first into the breast. Whether it sucks or not is in God's hands. It's as simple as that. This approach shocked us at first but we have come to accept that this is just how they do health promotion here.

So they love breast feeding here. I went with Elisabeth to see a patient in clinic who presented with secondary amenorea and loss of libido. I thought about prolactin (the hormone which stimulates milk production) so I asked if she had problems breast feeding her only child. She said she got on well and then said more which my bengali would not permit me to understand. Elisabeth's eyes widened and I asked what she said. It turned out she was still breast feeding the child. The child was 7 years old.

It is actually common to see 2 and 3 year old children breast feeding. I find it perturbing when the child can reach into its mothers sari and pull out the breast without the mother taking notice. It strikes me that a child with that level of dexterity can surely feed himself. I say himself as these children are invariably male, as they are most precious and should be breast fed as long as possible. The only male child is exposed to dangerous levels of maternal affection while his sisters are left out. Mothers keep playing the 50/50 odds up to 5 or more pregnancies till they hit the jackpot and get a boy.

We will talk more about the girl/boy disparities in future posts. I just thought this was an interesting cultural observation for an otherwise peaceful day here in Sarenga.

Neil