Breastfeeding Performance and Child Survival

This paper reviews factors influencing the impact of breastfeeding on child survival and details issues in the measurement of the nutrient intake anti-infective properties and contraceptive effect of breastfeeding. It is argued that a better understanding of what benefits breastfeeding brings in a specific environment will help policy makers to assess its value and to identify likely problems associated with not breastfeeding in the individual setting. The duration of breastfeeding and timing of introduction of supplements the pattern of suckling the type and manner in which supplements are given and the infection load within the environment all influence breastfeeding performance and its impact on child health and child survival. Each of these factors is discussed and documented in detail. Direct and indirect measurements of the impact of breastfeeding are examined by focusing on 1) nutrient intake in relation to quantity of breast milk; 2) the anti-infective properties of breast milk; and 3) the contraceptive effect of breast feeding through post partum abstinence and birth spacing. Several methods of measuring infant milk intake and lactation performance have been used with varying success. They include mechanical measures of milk from the breast (most direct); weighing the baby before and immediately after the breastfeeding session; the deuterium dilution technique a noninvasive approach to measuring breast milk intake; and an assessment of adequate child growth. Measurement of the anti-infective properties of breast milk needs to take into account both the direct (immunologic) and indirect (sterile) benefits. Because of the difficulties of measuring ovulation under field conditions the period of anovulation is usually estimated by the duration of postpartum amenorrhea. The use of suckling frequency to determine when resumption of menses is likely to occur within a population is probably the most accurate indirect means of measurement though not the most practical. Through the use of data on breastfeeding patterns demographers have used mathematical formulas to estimate the duration of amenorrhea. To assess the effect of breastfeeding on child survival through its birth spacing effect it would be necessary to compare populations who stop breastfeeding early with those who stop later within the same sociocultural group. Finally in attempting to make comparisons of populations undergoing changes in the duration of breastfeeding the impact of societal factors affecting child nutrition and health must be considered. As modernization occurs the duration of breastfeeding is often reduced. However findings suggest that the influence of breastfeeding on child survival is dependent on the local ecological context and on how it influences the intervening variables such as differences in availability of health services

Breastfeeding · Child mortality · Child survival · Environmental health · Population · Sociology · Breastfeeding Practices and Influences · Demography · Medicine · Pediatrics

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