Cautionary Tales About Extended Breastfeeding and Weaning

Abstract

Extended breastfeeding is uncommon and accorded limited research attention in the United States. In this article I analyze in-depth interviews with 66 breastfeeding mothers in Northern California. Mothers reveal their understanding of extended breastfeeding through descriptions of the surveillance of breastfeeding and cautionary tales. I examine the form and content of cautionary tales, emphasizing the pervasive culture of surveillance that underpins their relevance to nursing mothers. I interpret the cautionary tales in light of the dyadic encounter of breastfeeding, maternal identity, and norms about older breastfeeding children. The analysis is relevant to future explorations of early weaning in other regions.

Acknowledgments

The School of Social Sciences and the Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Program (RSCAP) at Sonoma State University provided important financial support for this project. I am grateful to the mothers who participated in this study; to Patrick Jackson for comments on this article; and to my student research assistants for help with various parts of this project: Sandi Davis, Ellen Heimann-Sullivan, Colleen Rodriguez, and Alicia Diaz Said. The reviewers and editors at HCWI also provided useful feedback.

Notes

Although the term “extended breastfeeding” often is used, there is not an established definition of the term. Extended breastfeeding might be 6 months to one observer and 3 years to another. For the purposes of this study, I define the term broadly (“past infancy”) in order to be inclusive of the range of definitions available to mothers as they make breastfeeding and weaning decisions. It is also important to consider that for many mothers in this study, ideas about appropriate breastfeeding duration are linked not only to age, but also children's behaviors.

These reasons include health, characteristics of the mother's workplace, child's sleeping habits, weight gain and feeding difficulties, partner's support of breastfeeding, perceptions of mother's milk supply, last child versus first child, sore nipples, sexual relations between parents, biting, mother's desire to get her body back, goal of child-led weaning, perceptions of appropriate child development, and many more. Other studies of weaning include some similar reasons (Ahluwalia, Morrow, & Hsia, 2005; McKinley & Hyde, 2004).