Abstract:
This research explores the perceptions of New Zealand Mori women and their whnau (customary Mori extended family) toward barriers to achieving best outcomes in infant feeding: exclusively breastfed infants at 6 months. Interviews are undertaken with 59 Mori women who have given birth in the previous 3 years and 27 whnau members. Although mothers and whnau members feel positively toward breastfeeding and generally expect to breastfeed exclusively, these expectations are unmet in many cases because of lack of support when establishing breastfeeding; lack of support when life circumstances change; lack of timely, culturally relevant, and comprehensible information; confusion about smoking while breastfeeding; uncertainty about the safety of bed-sharing, and perceived lack of acceptability of breastfeeding in public. The relatively high rates of tobacco use by Mori create a tension for breastfeeding mothers, cited by some as a reason for ending breastfeeding prematurely.