babies at any time. In the same vein, all the grandmothersargued:From our experiences, after r etiring fro m the farm ormarket, breastfeeding at night while asleep could bemuch easier than while awa ke and it is still commonamong mothers to date (FGD with grandmothers).Further more, th e gra nd mot hers described breastfeed-ing while sleeping at night as a way of kee ping babiesasleep with little interruption. This position was sub-stantiated in the narratives of six breastfeeding mothers:’ if the child refuses to sleep at night, it is largely theresponsibility of mothers to pacify the baby. This often actors influencing preference for breastfeedingWith the high level of breastfeeding awareness, it wasimportant to understand the factors that helped therespondents’ in arriving at the decision to breastfeed.More than two thirds (99%) of the responses indicatedbreastfeeding as a normative expectation of being amother. Thi s may not indicate a lack of understanding ofthe nutritional benefits of breast milk, as 66 percent of therespondents felt breastfeeding helped babies to grow in anormal pattern. A number of the respondents (43%) alsorecognized their mother-in-law as an essential figure indeciding on the need for breastfeeding (Table 3). In theFGD, four of the grandmothers recounted how their per-sonal involvement in breastfeeding had helped theirdaughter-in-law to initiate and continue breastfeeding,although not exclusively, but continued breastfeeding upto a year. Howev er, other gr andmothers in the group didnot express this same view, as three among them arguedagainst the self-sufficiency of breast milk, especially in thefirst six months of birth.Babies cannot feed on breast milk alone. Newborninfants will require additional supplements such asherbal concoction to guard against infections (Grand-mother, aged 68)Largely, the grandmothers described breastfeeding as anessential way of investing in an infants’ health, strengthen-ing the physical and spiritual bond between mothers andtheir children. Similarly, this form of bond associated withbreastfeeding was dominant in the interviews with thebreastfeeding mothers. They argued that all women muststrive to breastfeed in order to strengthen this bond, espe-cially for the nearest future. While exclusive breastfeedingwas not emphasized among the grandmothers, wome nwho breastfeed their children f or more than a year werelabeled as exemplary models of a good mother. An exemp-lary mother is ‘wura ti kose fii owo raa’ (priceless gold) and