Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Infant feeding practices and maternal work in a context of rapid industrialization

在生命的头两年里，充足的营养对适当的生长/发育和健康至关重要。然而，母亲必须处理工作和婴儿喂养的相互竞争的需求，她们在这些需求之间做出的权衡有可能影响她们自己和孩子的生活史参数。印度目前正在经历城市化和妇女专业机会的增加，这可能会改变国际青年合作论坛的做法，迄今为止，国际青年合作论坛的做法包括广泛的母乳喂养，而这些反过来可能对婴儿的成长和健康产生重要影响。 该项目将调查印度城乡的婴幼儿喂养做法及其与产妇工作的关系。本研究将采用生物文化方法和生活史框架，探讨国际青年合作论坛做法和母亲经济活动之间的权衡。这项为期12个月的纵向研究将研究产妇工作与纯母乳喂养持续时间之间的关系，补充食品的质量和时间，以及最终这些与婴儿生长参数和健康的关系。此外，这项研究还将包括关于国际青年合作论坛做法的文化规范和信仰的人种学资料，以及在一个迅速工业化的国家的异母照料和与国际青年合作论坛做法的关系。通过审查产妇的经济活动和国际儿童年的做法，可以更好地了解如何量化不同喂养策略对婴儿/儿童的成本和效益（在成长和健康方面）和母亲（就经济和社会收益或赤字而言）以及这些数字如何因家庭组成和城市和农村样本中妇女可获得的不同就业机会而有所不同。从这项研究中获得的信息将在政策讨论中发挥重要作用，讨论向城市劳动力过渡对母乳喂养时间和产假造成的限制，产假比目前的母乳喂养建议短。 该项目将支持一个有前途的研究生的科学培训。

Adequate nutrition during the first two years of life is essential for proper growth/development and health. However, mothers must deal with competing demands of work and infant feeding, and the trade-offs they make between these demands have the potential to affect their own and their child's life history parameters. India is currently experiencing urbanization and the rise of professional opportunities for women that may alter IYCF practices, which heretofore have included extensive breastfeeding, and these in turn may have important impacts on infant growth and health. This project will investigate infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices and their relationship with maternal work in urban and rural India. To examine the trade-offs between IYCF practices and maternal economic activities, this study will employ a bio-cultural approach and a life history framework. This 12-month longitudinal study will examine the relationship between maternal work and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, the quality and timing of the introduction of complementary foods, and ultimately how these are related to infant growth parameters and health. Furthermore, this study will also include ethnographic information on cultural norms and beliefs regarding IYCF practices, as well as allo-maternal care in a rapidly industrializing country and the relationship to IYCF practices. Examining maternal economic activities and IYCF practices allow for a better understanding of how to quantify the costs and benefits of different feeding strategies to both infants/children (in terms of growth and health) and mothers (in terms of economic and social gains or deficits) and how these vary based on household composition and the different employment opportunities that are available to women in the urban and rural samples.The data obtained from this study will be important in the context of policy discussions of the constraints imposed by the transition to the urban workforce on time available for breastfeeding and maternity leaves that are shorter than the current breastfeeding recommendations. This project will support the scientific training of a promising graduate student.