The Breastfeeding Paradox

Abstract

This paper explores the framing of public policy related to infant food insecurity in Canada by examining multiple levels and jurisdictions where infant feeding and food security policy merge. It identifies that both policy areas position breastfeeding as the solution to infant food insecurity, primarily isolating policy within health domains. Overall, this paper provides a critique of policy in relation to what we know about the challenges of maintaining breastfeeding as the sole nutrition strategies for infants and the barriers of access to alternative food for infants within the context of low-income circumstances in high-income countries such as Canada. It argues that infant food insecurity is a matter that requires better conceptualization and broader policy responses beyond health policy aimed at shaping infant feeding practice. An informed merging of infant feeding and food security policy could provide the framework for policy development to address the structural relations that make breastfeeding unsustainable, particularly for low-income women, as well food insecurity outcomes that stem from not breastfeeding in low-income circumstances.

Keywords:

• breastfeeding
• infant feeding
• food insecurity
• infant food insecurity
• public policy
• food access
• food systems
• Canada

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lesley Frank

Lesley Frank is a sociologist specializing in critical health studies with an interest in the social relations of food, family, social inequalities and public policy. She is an assistant professor at Acadia University. Department of Sociology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, B4P 2R6, Canada ([email protected]).