Some impressions of family life in Tsolo (Transkei)
Ames, F.R.; Daynes, W.G.
South African Medical Journal 48(46): 1961-1964
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 4417136 Document Number: 73994
Preliminary study was of the family relations among the Xhosa in Tsolo (Transkei) and the effect of changing from rural to industrial living. Those interviewed were 12 educated women including 10 nurses; 10 women attending children's clinics and 6 seen by a social worker visiting their village. All approved of breast feeding, ideally for 12 to 18 months, usually on demand, especially at night. Some had had to shorten the breast feeding to 3 months in order to return to work. Anyone who became pregnant weaned at once, because the milk was thought to be poisonous. Only the sister at the kwashiorkor unit maintained that some women were reluctant to breast feed and weaned early.