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Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women
BACKGROUND: Adverse health outcomes are higher among Maasai children in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area compared to other co-located ethnic groups and regions of Tanzania. The Mama Kwanza Socioeconomic Health Initiative, a Canadian-Tanzanian partnership delivering healthcare at clinics in this regi...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6323693/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30616549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-018-2165-7 |
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author | Dietrich Leurer, Marie Petrucka, Pammla Msafiri, Manjale |
author_facet | Dietrich Leurer, Marie Petrucka, Pammla Msafiri, Manjale |
author_sort | Dietrich Leurer, Marie |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Adverse health outcomes are higher among Maasai children in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area compared to other co-located ethnic groups and regions of Tanzania. The Mama Kwanza Socioeconomic Health Initiative, a Canadian-Tanzanian partnership delivering healthcare at clinics in this region, gathered perceptions of mothers regarding breastfeeding and infant nutrition in order to inform culturally sensitive, realistic, and effective health promotion efforts. METHODS: A qualitative description approach was used in interviewing 30 Maasai mothers of infants zero to six months of age to explore their infant feeding practices, beliefs, knowledge, and recommendations to support breastfeeding. A local research team was trained to conduct and transcribe the interviews and assist with data interpretation. Qualitative content analysis was used in analyzing the interview transcripts. RESULTS: Lactation is universal in this culture with all the mothers planning to breastfeed for at least one year and most having initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Lactation skills and knowledge are passed down intergenerationally from the elder women. None of the infants less than six months were exclusively breastfed, with a variety of liquid and semi-solid supplements given. Mothers perceived their milk alone was nutritionally insufficient with maternal dietary deficiencies cited as a factor. CONCLUSIONS: While there is a strong breastfeeding culture among the Maasai in Ngorongoro, intersectoral efforts are required to provide culturally respectful health education on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and to ensure the maternal dietary adequacy required to achieve this goal. The findings reinforce the importance of international health projects adapting health promotion initiatives to local realities and beliefs in efforts to improve maternal child health. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-018-2165-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6323693 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63236932019-01-10 Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women Dietrich Leurer, Marie Petrucka, Pammla Msafiri, Manjale BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research Article BACKGROUND: Adverse health outcomes are higher among Maasai children in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area compared to other co-located ethnic groups and regions of Tanzania. The Mama Kwanza Socioeconomic Health Initiative, a Canadian-Tanzanian partnership delivering healthcare at clinics in this region, gathered perceptions of mothers regarding breastfeeding and infant nutrition in order to inform culturally sensitive, realistic, and effective health promotion efforts. METHODS: A qualitative description approach was used in interviewing 30 Maasai mothers of infants zero to six months of age to explore their infant feeding practices, beliefs, knowledge, and recommendations to support breastfeeding. A local research team was trained to conduct and transcribe the interviews and assist with data interpretation. Qualitative content analysis was used in analyzing the interview transcripts. RESULTS: Lactation is universal in this culture with all the mothers planning to breastfeed for at least one year and most having initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Lactation skills and knowledge are passed down intergenerationally from the elder women. None of the infants less than six months were exclusively breastfed, with a variety of liquid and semi-solid supplements given. Mothers perceived their milk alone was nutritionally insufficient with maternal dietary deficiencies cited as a factor. CONCLUSIONS: While there is a strong breastfeeding culture among the Maasai in Ngorongoro, intersectoral efforts are required to provide culturally respectful health education on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and to ensure the maternal dietary adequacy required to achieve this goal. The findings reinforce the importance of international health projects adapting health promotion initiatives to local realities and beliefs in efforts to improve maternal child health. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-018-2165-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6323693/ /pubmed/30616549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-018-2165-7 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Dietrich Leurer, Marie Petrucka, Pammla Msafiri, Manjale Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title | Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title_full | Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title_fullStr | Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title_full_unstemmed | Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title_short | Maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of Maasai women |
title_sort | maternal perceptions of breastfeeding and infant nutrition among a select group of maasai women |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6323693/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30616549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-018-2165-7 |
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