Cultural practices of senior family members over infant and young child feeding practices of mothers who have children with undernutrition in Pakokku township at Magway region, Myanmar

Abstract

This paper focused on how the structure and function of cultural practices of senior family members influence mothers' IYCF practices to provide recommendations for facilitating the adoption of IYCF by Myanmar mothers. This study was conducted in Pakokku Township, Myanmar. In order to collect data, eleven mothers with undernourished children, six mothers' mother/mother-in-law (grandmothers), three husbands and three staffs of non-government organizations were interviewed from 5/09/18 to 29/01/19. Data coding and analysis followed Glaser and Strauss (2006) protocol. The result showed that the role of mothers in the infant feeding practices appeared to be structurally influenced by the senior family members who enforce cultural beliefs and practices of infant feeding practices. Senior family members, especially grandmother's experiences of the infant feeding practices controlled the mother's decision-making process of the infant feeding practices and generated barriers for mothers to adopt and follow the recommended IYCF practices. Although the national policy of IYCF mentions to promote the recommended IYCF practices among targeted senior family members and mothers, they are still accepting and applying the cultural infant feeding practices. Thus, this study suggests that the distribution of nutrition education message to the senior family members is more accelerated. This study also recommends conducting the evaluation research for the delivery mechanism of the nutrition education session to the senior family members and mothers.