CULTURAL PRACTICES THAT PROMOTE HEALTH

Not all cultural practices are detriment to our health, rather some of them also have a positive influencyvon our health. For example the idea of breast feeding of children for a long period of time over a year, has been proved to be very effective measure in preventing childhood malnutrition.

Another advantage of prolonged breast feeding is that it helps tge family to space thier children because in traditiinal African societies it is seen as a taboo for a breast feeding mothet to have sexual intercourse, morealso the more the child is breast feed the more the period the child will stay with the mothet before relating more with other relatives.

The traditional idea of putting a child at the back of the mother and wrapping them with wrapper, usually called 'Oja' among the Yoruba's, the idea also helps in developing a standard rrlationship between the mother and the baby. The mother in the process also surrogates and provides warmth for the child.

Extended family system help the family to stay closer for a longer period of time and also help when thier is need for family support or when a family member requires human effort, although it has some disadvantages.

These are just very few of cultural practices that promotes health.