BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

Chapter XIII
Breast Feeding
Breast feeding, because of its relationship
to the child's survival, is one of the major
factors to be considered in studies of infant
mortality. The markedly different patterns
observed in the Latin Ameican projects
come as a surprise. Until this Investigation
revealed the wide variaion':, breast
feeding was believed to be the usual method
of feeding infants in early life in developing
societies.
Several basic aspects of breast feeding
were studied in depth at the symposium entitled
The Uniqueness of Human Milk, the
proceedings of which were published by the
American Society of Clinical Nutrition
(1971). This collection of technical papers
on biochemical characteristics and anti-infection
properties of human milk, as well as
psychological, economic, and practical advantages
of breast feeding, was published
also in Spanish by the Pan American Health
Organization (1971-c, 1972-b). In this
series Jelliffe and Jelliffe (1971) gave a fine
overview of the incomparable value of maternal
milk for ensuring the survival and
health of young children.
For 23 widely separated areas in Latin
America, the Investigation has provided
data on the current situation regarding the
practice of breast feeding as well as the relationships
between lack or insufficiency of
bre ii..milk and diarrheal disease and nutritional
deficiency.
Studies by Gordon et al. (1963) on
weanling diarrhea implicated the age of
weaning as a time of high morbidity and
mortelity from diarrhcal disease. Also Gordon
et al. (1967) pointed out the exceedingly
high death rates for that disease in the
second year of life. The findings in this Investigation
in nearly all the areas are indicative
of an even more serious situation: a
widespread lack of breast feeding or its
early termination as well as excessive mortality
from diarrheal disease and nutritional
deficiency in the first year of life.
Data on breast feeding arc presented for
the 13 Latin American projects. In the
Canadian project breast feeding was rare
(only one deceased infant was breast fed),
veswr and in the California o odeeifrtecleto project home internot
conducted for the collection
views were
of such information.
The findings are aialyzed by infant's age
at death and alsr in relation to mother's
educational level. The role of breast feeding
in relation to two specific causes of
mortality, diarrheal disease and nutritional
deficiency, is studied in detail.
VARIATION IN PRACTICE OF BREAST FEEDING IN INFANCY
The wide variation in breast feeding in proportion of infants dying in the first year
infancy in the Latin American projects can of life who had been breast fed one month
in four
be seen in Table 156 and Figure 129. The or longer was over 70 per cent
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