The book investigates why, how, and with what implications some of these mothers describe themselves as "militant lactivists" as well as reflects on wider parenting culture in the UK and France. Discussing gender, feminism, and activism, this study contributes to kinship and family studies...
Über den Autor
rn Charlotte Faircloth is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow with the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Sociological Research at the University of Kent.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
nList of Illustrations
nList of Tables
nForeword
nAcknowledgments
n
nIntroduction
n
nPART I: THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY MOTHERING
n
nChapter 1. Intensive motherhood and identity work
n
n- nAn anthropology of parenting?
n- nParenting and/as kinship
n- nThe UK context
n- nIntensive mothering
n- nIntensive motherhood: 'Local moral world'
n- nHistoricising intensive motherhood
n- nMothering as identity work: Narrative processes of self-making
n
n
n
n
nChapter 2. Infant feeding and intensive motherhood
n
n- nBreastfeeding
n- nThe scientific case for breastfeeding
n- nThe context of infant feeding 1900-present
n- nInfant feeding and policy
n- nChoosing to breastfeed: Informed choice?
n- nInfant feeding and maternal identity
n
n
nPART II: LA LECHE LEAGUE
n
nChapter 3. Contextualising 'full-term' breastfeeding
n
n- nLa Leche League
n- nResearch sample
n- nDemographic profile: Who comes to LLL meetings?
n- nNon-participant observation
n- nAccounts
n- nExperiences
n- nCase-study
n- nContextualising full-term breastfeeding
n- nBreastfeeding, body boundaries and individuality
n- nDefence strategies
n
n
nChapter 4. La Leche League: Philosophy and community
n
n- nA typical meeting
n- nLa Leche League's philosophy
n- nThe founding of LLL Great Britain (LLLGB)
n- nParadoxes of appeal
n- nLLL and attachment parenting
n- nLLL for all mothers?
n
n
nChapter 5. 'Finding my tribe'
n
n- nWhy do people come to La Leche League meetings?
n- n'Finding my tribe'
n- nNorms
n- nLa Leche League as purposeful network
n- nNorms
n- nActivism
n- nResistance
n
n
nPART III: ACCOUNTING FOR FULL-TERM BREASTFEEDING
n
nChapter 6. 'It's natural': some cultural contradictions
n
n- nTypes of natural: Some accounts
n- nNatural parenting
n- nEvolutionary narratives: Primates and 'primitives'
n- n'Natural' mothering: Feminism and fathers
n- nCultural contradictions of going natural
n- nA return to anthropology?
n- nPostillegalscript
n
n
nChapter 7. 'What science says is best': Science as dogma
n
n- nThe scientific claim for full-term breastfeeding and attachment parenting
n- nPsychological evidence
n- nNeuroscience: 'Real evidence'
n- n'The Science'
n- n'The Science' and 'informed choice'
n
n
nChapter 8. 'What feels right in my heart': Hormones, morality and affective breastfeeding
n
n- nBecause of the hormones: 'It feels right'
n- nAffective breastfeeding
n- nInstinct and intuition: Some contradictions
n- nAgency when you 'just know'
n- nA moral good?
n- nAffect sensuality and breastfeeding
n- nNon-nutritive sucking, or, The affective residue
n
n
nPART IV: CONTEXTUALISING INTENSIVE MOTHERHOOD
n
nChapter 9. Mothering as identity work in cross-cultural perspective: The case of France
n
n- nMaking selves: Separation and attachment
n- nParis: A comparison
n- nLLL France
n- nDoubled reflexivity
n- nFrench parenting: Non-intensive motherhood?
n- nIt's natural? Feminism and (full-term) breastfeeding in France
n- n'Réunions à théme': Attachment mothers in Paris
n- nExpressing milk: The French way?
n
n
nConclusion
n
nAppendices
nAppendix I: Short term and long-term health benefits of breastfeeding for the child and mother in developed countries
nAppendix II: Summary of demographic results from questionnaire responses
n
nNotes
nReferences
nIndex
Klappentext
Following networks of mothers in London and Paris, the author profiles the narratives of women who breastfeed their children to full term, typically a period of several years, as part of an 'attachment parenting' philosophy. These mothers talk about their decision to continue breastfeeding as 'the natural thing to do': 'evolutionarily appropriate', 'scientifically best' and 'what feels right in their hearts'. Through a theoretical focus on knowledge claims and accountability, the author frames these accounts within a wider context of 'intensive parenting', arguing that parenting practices - infant feeding in particular - have become a highly moralized affair for mothers, practices which they feel are a critical aspect of their 'identity work'. The book investigates why, how and with what implications some of these mothers describe themselves as 'militant lactivists' and reflects on wider parenting culture in the UK and France. Discussing gender, feminism and activism, this study contributes to kinship and family studies by exploring how relatedness is enacted in conjunction to constructions of the self.
