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Abnormal Mothers: Breastfeeding, Governmentality and Emotion Amongst Regional Australian Women

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Abstract

Australia’s apparently poor rates of breastfeeding are a frequent feature in mainstream news reports. Underpinning these discussions is the breast is best discourse, which implies that not breastfeeding is indicative of bad motherhood. Alongside this dominant discourse is the persisting construction of breastfeeding as a private, corporeal act. This article examines the governing gridlock formed by these two dominant discourses, analysing interview data gathered from mothers in regional Western Australia about their complex experiences with breastfeeding. I aim to highlight how the governance of these breastfeeding discourses disguises the various ways in which women’s choices about breastfeeding are constrained. While these discourses may govern women in different ways, combined they represent a cultural paradigm clash which silences women about their difficulties with breastfeeding—the challenges women encounter in negotiating breastfeeding in contemporary daily life—both as a corporeal act and because of its corporeality. I argue that to avoid making women who do not breastfeed feel abnormal, this clash needs to be challenged in—and by—the wider Australian populace.

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Acknowledgements

The production of this paper has been supported by the Australian Government Department of Health through the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training programme. I would like to thank Dr Kathryn Trees, Dr Yarrow Andrew and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their thoughtful feedback on earlier versions of this paper. To the women who were so generous as to participate in this study and share their experiences with me; thank you.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rural Health, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, 49 Graham Street, Shepparton, VIC, 3630, Australia

    Christina Malatzky

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  1. Christina Malatzky
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Correspondence to Christina Malatzky.

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All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Murdoch University, The University of Melbourne, the Australian National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Malatzky, C. Abnormal Mothers: Breastfeeding, Governmentality and Emotion Amongst Regional Australian Women. Gend. Issues 34, 355–370 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-016-9179-0

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