Title: Cultural beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of lactating Mothers on exclusive breastfeeding
in The Gambia: an ethnographic study
Version: 1 Date: 29 Oct 2022
Reviewer's report:
Title: Cultural beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of lactating Mothers on exclusive breastfeeding
in The Gambia
Overall
Thank you the author for your attempt to conduct this study,
However, there are some considerable recommendations that should be concerned. The
manuscript demonstrates an interesting finding, however, there is too much content with around
42 pages. This point may decrease the attraction of the readers. It will be helpful to demonstrate
shorter content and select the key results that represent the objective of the study.
Abstract
In the abstract, there is some part of the information that should be illustrated such as;
# How long to conduct this study?
# How many participants were included in the study?
# According to this kind of ethnography, the cultural background is an essential context. So, the
characterization of the participant on the religion or ethnicity should be illustrated in the result.
Introduction
In the background, the significance of breastfeeding was clearly demonstrated, however, the
reason or gap of knowledge is unclearly illustrated. Why do cultural beliefs, attitudes, and
perceptions are important or involve lactating mothers? For example, in the last paragraph, the
statement tries to represent some of the previous or existing evidence. It will be helpful to cite
any study which could help readers about the importance of how cultural beliefs, attitudes, and
perceptions influence the practice of exclusive breastfeeding. And what is the significance for
conduct this study? In addition, there are some words that may have incorrect word spelling
such as “reast-feeding”. It should be “breast-feeding”
Methodology
For conducting the Ethnographic study, in order to gain and learn the cultural belief, prolonged
engagement in the field research is an important way. Based on the duration of engagement
in the field, the researcher report that three months of engagement was organized as an emic
view interpretation. Actually, about 6-12 months is the duration for prolonged engagement in
ethnography. So for the duration of engagement in this study, I am not sure that this period will
be enough for discovering cultural context.
How and when the researcher conducts the debrief during the field study?
Result:
# With respect to the “Representative of setting and study population” as the author illustrated
the conclusion of breastfeeding settings and study population, this point will be good for the
reader to see how the context of the study setting and breastfeeding are. However, the drawn
details seem ponderous and look like the storytelling. Too many of content may induce some
confusion among readers. I think grouping or thematic conclusion for the main finding and then
extending more understanding with some explanation will be a benefit for readers.
# There are some dialects or local words demonstrated such as “coos ogi”, “ebbeh” or “gari” ,etc
which readers who are not the local people may not understand. So, if there are some dialect
words, the explanation should be added or put together.
# There are six themes; each with subthemes that emerged in relation to the cultural beliefs,
attitudes, and perceptions of lactating mothers on exclusive breastfeeding. However, the
extended explanation in each subtheme seems to be too much detail. It will help readers easier
catch up to the key finding if the explanation and quotation are briefly interpreted with shorter
represent.