Leah Miller

Sociology Project 3

Breastfeeding:
Socially Accepted (to an Extent)

My mother was always very proud that she breastfed me and my brothers
in the 1970s. She said it was very difficult at the time with little support from
doctors or family. When I had my first child, I was happy to have her by my side.
Like many women today, I found that breastfeeding was difficult, but I was able to
make it work with a wonderful support network. And then, when my baby was
about 6 months old, people around me (including my mother) started to ask
when I was going to wean my daughter? That support network seemed to
disappear over night. I felt really alone, but I stuck with it. I surpassed my goal
of breastfeeding for a year and then at around 14 months, I was just too
exhausted and over it. My daughter and I weaned.
Breastfeeding has come and gone and come again into fashion in the
United States over the past century. The lowest rate of breastfeeding was in
1972 when only 22% of American babies were breastfed (www.jn.nutrition.org).
This low number is certainly due to the medical establishment in the 1950s
backing the formula industry. The natural birth movement and breastfeeding
organizations like La Leche League in the 1960s and 1970s helped swing things
around, and then in 1978, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that

breastmilk was indeed better than formula. This led to several campaigns
supporting breastfeeding like Breast is Best and Babies are Born to
Breastfeed, as well as a crackdown on formula companies marketing their
products. In the late 1990s, federal and state legislature were passed to support
breastfeeding women and their babies in the workplace, as well as to insure their
rights to breast feed their babies in public. In 2014, the Center for Disease
Control reported nearly 80% of American babies were being breastfed when they
were discharged from the hospital after their birth (www.cdc.gov). This is
probably the highest rate of breastfeeding initiation in recorded history.
But breastfeeding initiation is one thing. Continued or even extended
breastfeeding is another. Only 41% of American babies are being exclusively
breastfed at 3 months and 27% are being breastfed along with complimentary
solid food at 12 months (www.cdc.gov).
The World Health Organization states exclusive breastfeeding for 6
months is the optimal way of feeding infants. Thereafter infants should receive
complementary foods with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or
beyond (www.who.int). The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends
exclusive breastfeeding for about the first six months of a baby's life, followed by
breastfeeding in combination with the introduction of complementary foods until
at least 12 months of age, and continuation of breastfeeding for as long as
mutually desired by mother and baby (www.aap.org). Even though the WHO
and the AAP recommend breastfeeding till 2, women commonly report that their
doctors tell them to stop after a year because the milk no longer is beneficial for

the baby. Family members and friends often insinuate that a breastfed toddler
will be spoiled and/or be too attached to the mother.
Even with formal norms to protect breastfeeding women along with the
support of the medical establishment, breastfeeding remains a taboo in our
culture. Although there are no sanctions for women who chose to feed their
babies in public places, it is certainly a breach of folkway. Women report that
others communicate their disdain for public breastfeeding in non-verbal ways
(awkwardly diverting eyes, frowning, covering older childrens eyes, etc.). Some
breastfeeding mothers, despite having the law on their side, are asked outright to
cover up when nursing or even to leave. Perhaps because breasts are primarily
associated with sexuality in our culture, our puritanical society considers breasts
(and therefore breastfeeding) immoral. Exposing breasts, even for a purely
biological process like feeding a baby, is considered an act of deviance.
Disneyland now offers private nursing rooms for breastfeeding women.
This says to the public that they support breastfeeding, but it symbolizes to the
mother that she should not be feeding her baby in a place where any one can
see them. And if she cannot feed her baby sitting outside on a park bench along
with the rest of the patrons, then she really isnt being supported. Disney may
like the idea of babies getting breast milk, but no one really wants to see it.
Sociologist Julie Artis writes, Despite the fact that scientists and doctors
recommend breastfeeding.breastfeeding remains controversial. While society
wants mothers to breastfeed to protect and promote health, it wants them to do
so behind closed doors (Contexts: Breastfeed at your own Risk).

My son was born about 3 years after my daughter. This time around, I
was much stronger and didnt worry as much about what my family thought. I
remember when my son was about 1, my father (who happens to be a doctor)
said something about me weaning and I told him that I didnt think I wanted to
wean anytime soon. I told him about the WHOs recommendation and he
laughed it off saying that this was just a way of the WHO to keep the population
crisis under control (since breastfeeding decreases mothers chances of getting
pregnant). At that point, I also noticed how my mother would always try to cover
me up whenever I was in public and breastfeeding. She would pull my shirt over
to cover my chest or even take a napkin and throw it over my shoulder and the
babys head. It always really upset me and made me feel ashamed.
Ive often heard people say that if a child is old enough to lift his mothers
shirt or to ask for the boob, then the child is too old to be breastfeeding. This
insinuates that once the child is old enough to know that he is sucking on a
breast, then its no longer appropriate. Perhaps the child would remember
sucking on his mothers breast when he grows into an adult? And since the
breast is sexualized in our society, that action would borderline on another
cultural taboo: incest. In 2007, Time Magazines cover story about attachment
parenting with a graphic photo of a supermodel, Jamie Grumet, breastfeeding
her 3 year old son was incredibly controversial. This deliberate defiance of our
cultural norms resulted in death threats for the model mother.
Sociologists often think that biology shapes our behavior and our culture.
Breastfeeding is purely biological. It is nature, and yet it is not nurtured by our

society. Lactivists (Breastfeeding Activists) work to ensure that breastfeeding

women are not discriminated against. Whenever a breastfeeding woman is
discriminated against, lactivists use social media to quickly stage nurse-ins.
The breastfeeding community is also encouraging of breastfeeding women to
breastfeed in public whenever they can so that breastfeeding is normalized. By
covering up or using the designated and private nursing rooms, the act of
breastfeeding remains elusive. Linda Blum in her book At the Breast:
Ideologies of Breastfeeding says that in the current era, breastfeeding has
become the measure of the mother, (page 3) and yet our society still frowns on
the action of it. Hopefully, as the norms change, the culture of breastfeeding will
be transmitted to larger society and the stigma will eventually be dissolved.
I did breastfeed my son till he was nearly 2. Just like with my daughter, I
just got to a point where I was over it. I was exhausted by breastfeeding. Now I
wonder if that exhaustion had more to do with the fact that I was breaking social
norms and being treated like a deviant by my dearest loved ones. The societal
pressure was just too much for me. Being both a loving mother and a dutiful
daughter or upstanding citizen created a lot of strain and strife. I wonder: if I
was truly supported by my family and by our society, would I have continued to
breastfeed?

Works Cited

Wright, Anne L and Richard J. Schanler. The Resurgence of Breastfeeding at

the End of the second millennium. JN: Journal of Nutrition. 2001, The American
Society for Nutritional Sciences. Web
Breastfeeding Report Card: United States: 2014. www.cdc.gov Center for
Disease Control and Prevention. Web
Exclusive Breastfeeding. www.who.org World Health Organization. Web
Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. www.aap.org
American Academy of Pediatrics. Web
Mohrbacher, Nancy and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett. Breastfeeding Made Simple:
Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications,
Inc., 2005. Print
Blum, Linda M. At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the
Contemporary United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. Print
Artis, Julie E. Breastfeed at Your Own Risk Contexts: Understanding People in
Their Social World. November 12, 2009. American Sociological Association.
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