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

在生命的头两年，充足的营养对于适当的生长/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的权衡可能会影响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职业机会的增加，这可能会改变国际儿童基金会的做法，其中包括广泛的母乳喂养，而这些做法反过来又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市和农村的婴幼儿喂养做法及其与产妇工作的关系。为了考察国际青年会实践和母体经济活动之间的权衡，本研究将采用生物文化方法和生活史框架。这项为期12个月的纵向研究将考察产妇工作与纯母乳喂养持续时间之间的关系、引入补充食品的质量和时机，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年儿童基金会做法的文化规范和信仰的人种学信息，以及一个快速工业化国家的异地孕产护理及其与国际年儿童基金会做法的关系。审查产妇的经济活动和国际年儿童基金会的做法有助于更好地了解如何量化不同喂养战略对婴儿/儿童(在成长和健康方面)和母亲(在经济和社会收益或赤字方面)的成本和收益，以及这些成本和收益如何根据家庭构成和城市和农村样本中妇女可获得的不同就业机会而变化。在政策讨论的背景下，这项研究获得的数据将是重要的，因为向城市劳动力的过渡对母乳喂养的可用时间和产假的限制比目前的母乳喂养建议要短。该项目将支持一名有前途的研究生的科学培养。

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.