Abstract
It is quite common to ascribe the decline in breastfeeding practices to misinformation and commercial malpractice. There is little doubt that commercial milk and baby food interests have made a negative impact on breastfeeding behavior either directly or through an influential medical profession. Moreover, the medical profession and others who are consulted about breastfeeding are often misinformed about the effects of breastfeeding and the ways to encourage it (1). Yet, the decline in breastfeeding has occurred concurrently with vast social and economic changes in the status of women, household size and income, wage rates, food prices, and even the nature of the work undertaken by the women. This does not, however, mean that exogenous forces such as the marketing pressures of baby food companies and the misinformed medical profession are benign factors; rather, all of these forces affect breastfeeding behavior.
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Popkin, B.M. (1978). Economic Determinants of Breast-Feeding Behavior: The Case of Rural Households in Laguna, Philippines. In: Mosley, W.H. (eds) Nutrition and Human Reproduction. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0790-7_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0790-7_25
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