‘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.