Abstract

Breastfeeding and Food Policy in a Hungry World documents the proceedings of the International Conference on Human Lactation held by the New York Academy of Sciences in March 1977. The contributions made by researchers at the conference are organized into five sections. Section One presents studies on the family contexts of breastfeeding and social myths and economic realities of breastfeeding. Section Two examines cultural factors in infant feeding practices, including breastfeeding practices of women in India, Nigeria, and China. Section Three deals with the economic and commercial aspects of infant weaning foods. It includes studies on economics of food aid programs; the difficult problems involved in developing a dairy industry in warm climates; and the effects on breastfeeding of the present political climate. Section Four presents studies on physiological, psychological, public health, and political considerations in human lactation. Section Five describes several programs designed to improve the health of children. These include nonformal education to help women help themselves and their families, and food subsidies and decentralization of service to improve the health of poor people.