Psychiatr Enfant. 1990 ; 33(1): 287-319.

[Changes in maternal behavior and care practices in migrant women from Western Africa]

Rabain-Jamin J, Wornham WL.

A study on the various kinds of behavior in mothering and the ways of taking care of children by 26 migrant mothers coming from West Africa was carried out in order to evaluate and analyze changes in these practices when coming into contact with French society. The data was gathered during observations and interviews in the home setting. Massage techniques and posturo-motor exercises, as well as the physical contact between the adult and the child, and breast-feeding, were examined. Acculturation can be rapid in the ways children are fed. Massage techniques and bodily exercises, which are bound up with the way the child and its development are perceived, are harder to change. Children having gone through these exercises walk significantly earlier than those who haven't. As regards sickness, resorting to modern medicine is obvious, but doesn't basically change the traditional way of interpreting it, which makes of sickness the expression of a disorder affecting the family group in its entirety.