The infants had been ill several times with fever, cough, measles, and dysentery. Several mothers reported that their infants have had pneumonia. The majority of the mothers expressed that their infants were very thin, had lost weight, and were less active, particularly after the breastfeeding stopped. One mother said, “I just look at how thin my baby is. I don’t know what I am supposed to give her” (25 years, 3-para). One infant was described by his mother as blind and not interested in other people.

It was the mother’s first child after a very complicated delivery and she felt very sad: “I am more worried now about the baby …. If my baby stays healthy, I will be in peace” (17 years, 1-para). Role of the cultural context Traditional rules The women were well aware of the traditional customs around childbirth, but only a few mothers followed the custom of “giving birth in their father’s house” to get support from her mother and female relatives. phosphatase inhibitor library A majority of the women wanted to go to their parental home, but some of them preferred to give birth at their marital home, particularly if their biological mother was deceased. As reasons for not going to their parental homes, the women

expressed that their husbands and Selleck VE822 in-laws did not allow them to go or because they did not want to leave for practical reasons, such as leaving the house empty, that the husbands had to work for an income and could not do all the household work himself or, as one woman said, he was “tired of cooking for himself” (27 years, 2-para). Traditional food restrictions were followed by a majority of the women but not all. One mother said: “They now say that you lose breast milk if you follow the diet, if I have fish and milk, then there will be plenty of breast milk” (20 years, 2-para). Another mother said: “These rules, you know, we do not actually follow them anymore … but it is better to follow

them, the baby stays healthier this way” (28 years, 5-para). The mothers believed in the “evil eye” and that both they themselves and the baby could be jinxed. They said they were scared to go out in the evenings, fearing that something might happen to the infant. The restriction of Dipeptidyl peptidase staying indoors was followed in various ways. Very few stayed indoors for 40 days. Most said that they stayed indoors for 14–15 days. In contrast, all new mothers, also those who did not follow the diet or indoor restrictions, adhered to the practice of not having sex with their husbands for 40 days after childbirth. However, several of the women could not follow the rule because their husbands insisted on intercourse. “I had to be with him. I can’t say no to my husband, it is a sin to deny him” (30 years, 7-para). Those mothers who delivered their child at their parental house were satisfied with the support from their own families, particularly from their mothers and sisters.