Girl Child: A Mother's Grief

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This picture from Islamabad, Pakistan, tells two stories: most obviously, about the often fatal consequences of bottle-feeding; more profoundly, about the age-old bias in favour of the male.

The child with the bottle is a girl she died the next day. Her twin brother was breast-fed. The woman was told by her mother-in-law that she didn't have enough milk for both her children, and so should breast-feed the boy. But almost certainly she could have fed both children herself, because the process suckling induces the production of milk.

However, even if she found that she could not produce sufficient milk, unlikely as that would be, a much better alternative to bottle-feeding would have been to find a wet-nurse. Ironically, this role has sometimes been taken by grandmother. In most cultures, before the advent of bottle-feeding, wet-nursing was a common practice.

"Use my picture if it will help", said the mother. "I don't want other people to make the same mistake".

(CX5041)

 

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