Saturday, January 18, 2014

January 18, 2014
Ed 6061
Child Development
Walden University

       The topic I chose was breast feeding.  Why? Well I am a mother and I breast fed all five of my children.  Now there is a difference in children and there is a difference on breastfeeding each of those children.   I found that each of my breast feeding experiences were unique.  There are many factors in deciding to breast feed your child.  One of the things I wanted for my children was less likely to be prone to allergies.  I also read that the skin on skin contact between mother and child would increase the amount of neurons developing in the baby’s brain.  And of course nutritionally breast milk is said to be the best and most nutritious form of food for an infant.  So breast feeding it was as far as I was concerned.  Many of my friends thought I should have formula just in case it didn't work.  All my children did well with nursing, two of them I did supplement with formula but all in all they did well with the process. 
        I chose the country of Saudi Arabia to explore breast feeding practices.  I have no reason for selecting Saudi Arabia I just did.  But what I found out surprised me.  In the blog Susie’s Big Adventure it was found that women in Saudi do not normally breastfeed their new born infants in spite of Islam’s directive to do so.  What happened?  According to Susie in the 1970’s baby formula became widely available in Saudi and women switched over to the formula.  It was also noted that the hospital will not release an infant and new mother until the infant can successfully suck on a bottle of formula to feed.  A quote from the blog states “A staggering statistic from a 2005 UNICEF report on indicates that a whopping 60% of Muslim children worldwide die before reaching their first birthdays, due to malnutrition and disease. This tragic result is directly related to the decline in mothers who breastfeed their children.” Retrieved January 18,2014 from http://www.susiesbigadventure@blogspot.com This is a frightening statistic.
It was noted however in another study that the popularity of breast feeding was due to breast mild not being sufficient enough for the child.  The Quran states that breastfeeding will take place for the first two years of life; many mothers discontinued breastfeeding exclusively after six months.  After six months formula was introduced and continued to be interspersed with nursing. 

       For me breast feeding was a desire to provide optimal health benefits for my children for others it may be tradition or practicality.  I have friends who wanted to breast feed and for some reason or another could not.  This made them question their ability to be good mothers.  And that is the real issue where breast feeding is looked up on as an entrance into the “motherhood club”  however I see it as a personal choice and what ever that choice is it should be honored. 

                                                                         References 

http://www.susiesbigadventure@blogspot.com (2010)  Breast feeding in Saudi Arabia a fading art. Retrieved January 18, 2014

Al-jassir M., Moizuddin, SK, Al-Bashir, B. (2003) A review of some statistics on breastfeeding in Saudi Arabia. Retrieved January 18 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14653507


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