‘If they want to risk the health and well-being of their child, that's up to them’: Long-term breastfeeding, risk and maternal identity

Abstract

This article examines the narratives of women who breastfeed their children for ‘extended’ periods of time, as a means of exploring the relationship between risk-consciousness, infant feeding and maternal identity. The paper shows that whilst these women practice a form of infant feeding which is validated by wider policy directives emphasising the risks associated with formula milk use, their ‘identity work’ is not as straightforward as may be expected. Indeed, women sit at a juncture between affirmation and marginalisation, highlighting a significant dissonance between statistical, ideological and cultural norms. The argument is that the widespread moralisation of infant feeding practices (and parenting more generally) appears to have amplified tensions between various ‘tribes’ of mothers. In terms of risk consciousness, this leaves the mothers in this sample in a double bind: on the one hand, their marginal position is affirmed through recourse to risk reduction, on the other, their non-conventional practices are left open to the charge of ‘riskiness’ with respect to the social and emotional development of their children.

Keywords:

• long-term
• breastfeeding
• risk-consciousness
• maternal identity

Notes

1. These are women who practice an ‘attachment parenting’ philosophy in addition to being members of LLL. Classification is based on statistics and responses derived from the questionnaire, that is, those women breastfeeding their children beyond a year, as well as the author's observations at groups meetings and interviews.

2. She refers to the paper by the American Academy of Pediatrics (1984). Hoddinott's paper gives a useful appraisal of the evidence available.

3. The definition of ‘full-term’ breastfeeding here follows La Leche League convention, that is, it is taken to be beyond one year (whilst appreciating that one can feed ‘to term’ long after this point). Children self-weaning before a year are considered to be on a ‘nursing strike’ by LLL, and steps are suggested to interest them in breastfeeding again. Beyond this point is considered self-weaning, which is ideal.

4. A popular comedy show in the UK featuring a character who breastfeeds as an aristocratic adult.

5. The majority of women in my sample (nearly two thirds) were not working outside of the home at the time of interviewing. In line with an intensive mothering framework, women are encouraged to self-identify through mothering and to see mothering as the primary frame by which women communicate and sustain their identity. For the women I work with, this is often understood to come at the cost of other means of self-fashioning such as through employed labour, arguably a central social vehicle for identity-work in Britain today.