Breastfeeding as a process is culturally constructed, that is, in spite of its physiological base, the process itself, its meaning, and the way it is integrated into cultural systems varies globally. (Penny Van Esterik, 1996) In many societies breastfeeding is natural and often lasting up to two or three years but in other cultures breastfeeding can be frowned upon if it continues beyond three months.

Traditionally in breastfeeding cultures such as Africa, a woman who has just given birth to a baby, would “lie-in” for a period of time, sometimes as long as six months depending on the culture. During this period a breastfeeding mother has ample opportunity to rest and recover her strength while family members, friends and relatives attend to her needs and to other family chores. The mother, during this time is also provided with special foods, for example in some tribes in Tanzania, (Arusha and Moshi in particular) a mother is given lots of meat, warm drinks and milk to ensure the mother has sufficient milk for the baby and regains her strength back. Her sister or in law would even give her a daily bath to ensure she is clean and fresh from the birth fluids. The husband is restricted access to his newly delivered wife for all the period she is “lying-in”. This allows the mother plenty of time to be with the baby, establishing breastfeeding and bonding with her baby. Restricting the husband also ensured that the mother is protected from infection and early pregnancy. If early pregnancy happened breastfeeding would be stopped abruptly and this was punishable in certain cultures because it was considered tantamount to killing the baby.

Also traditionally women were employed in informal sector, allowing them to carry their children with them to the place of work and continue to breastfeed.

With the changing lifestyles however, the erosion of the extended family, migration to cities, and socio-economic pressures, many good practices have been eroded. The mother would not have time to lie-in because there would not be anybody to look after her or she would not have time to lie in because she has to go back early to work. Maternity benefits are still very limited for working mothers. The grand parents who would have provided emotional support are no longer staying with young couples. Most grandmothers now are those who had their babies during the formula boom in the late 1960,s or early seventies so they would tend to promote commercial formula rather than breastmilk.

At the same time, although breastfeeding is the norm in Africa, there are some pockets of women who think that formula feeding is modern and is as good as breastmilk especially where aggressive marketing from manufacturers and distributors still continues. There are also certain beliefs that discourage some good breastfeeding practices such as discarding of colostrum; refusing the mother to breastfeed when the previous baby died; or grand mothers advising introduction of traditional teas, herbs or other concoctions to keep away evil spirits.

The benefits of breastfeeding are known and it is therefore important to encourage all mothers to breastfeed by establishing baby friendly environments. Breastfeeding contributes to the health and well being of mothers and children, families and communities. Many traditional forms of support for mothers have been undermined and threatened by forces of globalization, modernization and industrialization. Peer support group methodology has been shown to be effective in changing or maintaining optimal behaviors in a variety of fields such as substance abuse and cancer treatment.

In the African philosophy, community support was the norm while “Mother Support Groups” for breastfeeding is a concept not well understood or valued. In support groups mothers are considered active participants in the support dynamic, being both recipients and providers of information and support. Mother support should be viewed and valued as an important contributor to optimal infant feeding practices throughout the reproductive cycle, with special attention on humanizing pregnancy and childbirth care. Mother support should be defined broadly as any support provided to mothers for the purpose of improving breastfeeding practices for both mother and baby. Mothers should receive support throughout their entire reproductive cycle (pregnancy, birthing and post-natal). Mother-to-mother support groups are one of many ways that mother support can be provided. Mother support is particularly important for mothers at greatest risk for not breastfeeding optimally such as working women, women in emergency situations, women with HIV/AIDS, etc.

Mothers are life-givers, bearers and nurturers of humanity. Mothers are the primary child care givers of their infants. Mothers need support to optimally feed their infants. IBFAN Africa, therefore promotes community support for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and all mothers pre-and post delivery, through its in-country networks. This project seeks a broad concept of mother support such that we support diverse types of community-based support initiatives that can help to bring about an enabling environment for mothers to initiate and sustain exclusive breastfeeding and practice extended breastfeeding after 6 months, with adequate complementary feeding.

Among efforts being made in this area are:
1. Training of national coordinators on the need to establish/and or strengthen support groups
2. Advocacy for recognition of the role of and funding for mother support or community support systems for IYCF.
3. Providing information and practical help to the IBFAN national groups so that they can create/or identify support for women in communities.
4. Providing opportunities for networking and sharing of experiences, models, and tools and enhance existing support measures, groups or activities, or initiate new ones.
5. Promoting education and sensitisation of communities towards the importance of breastfeeding and encouraging them to be more supportive of breastfeeding families or even directly involved in supporting mothers.
6. Promoting men and youth Involvement in community mobilisation and support with IYCF.