More Than Nutrition: Breastfeeding in Urban Mali

Ethnographic research on infant feeding among women in Mali reveals that breast milk substitutes are not widely used, with only 15 out of 136 children (11%) ever having received a breast milk substitute. This is an exception to the general trend toward substantial use of breast milk substitutes in urban Third World contexts. Economic constraints, probreastfeeding government policies, and beliefs about the value of breast milk all function to support the maintenance of breastfeeding. In addition, traditional kinship beliefs strongly affect maternal perceptions of the opportunity costs of alternative infant feeding choices, since only breastfeeding creates maternal kinship.