Promotion of breast-feeding in a Chinese community in Montreal.

Following a prospective survey that showed a very low rate of breast-feeding (10%) in 1977-79 among Chinese women in Montreal, a culturally targeted program, which included individual prenatal counselling and a community-wide promotion and education campaign, was developed to improve the rates. The study group consisted of all Chinese women delivering in 1980 and 1981 who had taken their infants to one pediatrician for continuing care. The rates of breast-feeding in the 88 women who had received prenatal counselling and the 93 women who had not were compared. Although the rates were substantially increased for both groups over the 1977-79 rate (54% and 34% in 1980 and 65% and 55% in 1981 respectively), the 2-year rate was significantly higher for the counselled group compared with the uncounselled group in the later study (59% v. 43%). The greatest effect of counselling was seen in young, primiparous women of higher socioeconomic status who spoke French or English in addition to Chinese. However, 33% of the counselled women who had started breast-feeding had stopped by 1 month, compared with only 15% of the uncounselled women. Thus, although the rates of breast-feeding in ethnic groups can be increased with the use of a language- and culture-specific approach, more support and encouragement must be given to women who start breast-feeding so that they will continue longer.