The Feed the Future Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis (MAPSA) learning series is designed to train Myanmar economists and policy analysts on current knowledge, evidence, and methods for the analysis of the Myanmar agri-food system. Through this learning series, participants will learn new analytical and relevant economic methods using updated datasets for Myanmar and will benefit from expert insights on the agrifood system, food security and nutrition. Participants will receive a comprehensive understanding on key topical issues that are important to development of an inclusive and sustainable agrifood system in Myanmar.
About the Module
Maternal diets during breastfeeding are essential for providing optimal nutrition to the infant through breastmilk while supporting the mother’s health and sustained lactation. However, maternal food avoidance taboos during pregnancy, postpartum and breastfeeding exist in many Asian countries, including Myanmar, which can pose a serious risk of micronutrient deficiencies for mothers and infants. But the prevalence and impacts of such practices on dietary diversity are not well quantified. For example, major nutrition surveys such as the Demographic Health Survey or Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys do not ask any questions about food avoidance practices, nor do standard economic surveys.
In this webinar, we learned about how we designed and tracked this phenomenon in Myanmar. We added a novel module on food avoidance beliefs, nutritional knowledge, and nutrition counselling exposure to a nationally representative survey (N=12,353) of Myanmar to estimate the national prevalence of beliefs, of both men’s and women’s, around maternal food avoidance during breastfeeding in Myanmar, and the correlates of these beliefs. We also assessed the impact of food avoidance after birth on minimum dietary diversity (MDD-W) of breastfeeding mothers using a unique high-frequency panel of mothers in Yangon who were all pregnant in early 2020 (N=3,541).
We concluded that avoidance taboos during breastfeeding poses a serious risk of micronutrient deficiencies for mothers and infants. Food avoidance beliefs and practices should be more extensively monitored in nutrition surveys, and future research should develop and assess interventions to more effectively redress these nutritionally harmful food avoidance practices.
Presenters
Dr.Derek Headey, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
Khin Mar Linn, Research Analyst, International Food Policy Research Institute
Moderator
Ian Masias, Deputy Chief of Party, Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis, International Food Policy Research Institute
Download the presentation slides from "Food Avoidance Taboos and Maternal Diets in Myanmar" here.
Related publications
- Prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity among mothers in Yangon and Ayeyarwady, October–November 2023
- Stunting and wasting rates among pre-school age children in Yangon and Ayeyarwady, October–November 2023
- Tracking Maternal and Child Anthropometric Outcomes, Early Childhood Development, Maternal Mental Health and Household Welfare in urban Yangon and rural Ayeyarwady: A Description of the 11th Round of The Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) conducted in October-November 2023
- Food avoidance among breastfeeding mothers in Myanmar and its impacts on maternal dietary quality
