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Lactation - How Important is it?

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Medical University of Southern Africa, Box 168, Medunsa, South Africa 0204

A R P Walker, DSc

Human Biochemistry Research Unit, School of Pathology of the University of the Witwatersrand, and the South African Institute for Medical Research, Johannesburg 2000

In Africa, with poverty rising, and health care diminishing, a nutritional question is — what are the limits of successful physiological adaptation to low dietary intakes? In this review the practice of lactation is discussed, from both past and present viewpoints. Orthodox Recommended Allowances for lactation are scarcely ever met. Yet, through various adaptations, the huge majority of African and similarly placed mothers lactate successfully and produce milk of good quantity and quality. The benefits from supplements are discussed; broadly, results have been disappointing. Some good and adverse non-dietary practices are considered. Benefits for infant and mother from lactation, even for protracted periods, far exceed drawbacks.

The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, Vol. 114, No. 1, 20-28 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/146642409411400105


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