Lactation education: the learning of the 'obvious'

As far as the human mother is concerned, breast-feeding is hardly an instinctive act. Its success is based on the transmittal of accumulated experience in how to tackle breast-feeding problems. In rural societies where this experience is still intact and the mothers are well supported in the period just after the birth of the child, the best policy is non-interference. In transitional and urban societies, however, the traditional know-how and support is often lost, and failure to breast-feed usually results; here, lactation education is in its place. The knowledge of health personnel about how to teach mothers to breast-feed is often scanty. Medical text-books are weak on this point--more often than not, the information given is a mere extrapolation of bottle-feeding techniques to breast-feeding. Re-education is necessary, so that the advice given to mothers is simple, uniform and based on experience and insight. 'Moralizing' is unnecessary and should be avoided. There are several channels for the spreading of information about breast-feeding: mothers' groups, health services in general, mass media and schools. The importance of the policy makers should not be overlooked: at least in urban areas, several of their decisions will finally affect the method of infant feeding.