{"id":8819,"date":"2020-05-18T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/?p=8819"},"modified":"2021-07-01T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T12:48:45","slug":"breastfeeding-policies-that-are-disconnected-from-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/breastfeeding-policies-that-are-disconnected-from-reality\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Breastfeeding Policies Disconnected from Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Marta Dominguez Folgueras, OSC*<\/em><\/p>\n

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Cr\u00e9dit image : Anton Nossik., CC BY 3.0<\/p><\/div>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines breastfeeding as \u201cthe best source of nourishment for infants and young children.\u201d The organization recommends breastfeeding for at least the first six months of an infant\u2019s life. Many countries have adapted the WHO\u2019s discourse on breastfeeding for their own national health programs. What are the bases of these recommendations and what are their effects? How do these recommendations take into account women\u2019s bodily autonomy? Social sciences, although rarely used, can provide illuminating responses.<\/p>\n

The \u201cscientific\u201d discourse around breastfeeding<\/h4>\n

Pro-breastfeeding campaigns conducted by the WHO and other organizations underline the positive effect it has on a child\u2019s health. Breastfeeding is considered helpful in increasing a child\u2019s immunity as well as reducing risks for various health conditions, including obesity. Potential benefits for the mother\u2019s health are sometimes invoked, but are often relegated to the background. There are of course many reasons why a woman might choose to breastfeed — for her own pleasure, for example — but these arguments are rarely taken into account in medical discourse. Although research has shown that in poorer countries, the adverse effects of formula feeding is directly linked to a lack of potable water and insufficient access to appropriate quantities of high-quality formula, the recommendations for breastfeeding remain the same regardless of country.<\/p>\n

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Daniel Assefa, Head of the Bureau of Plan and Finance during UNICEF’s 65th anniversary in Ethiopia, World Breastfeeding Week, 2018. \u00a9UNICEF, Demissew Bizuwerk. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

These recommendations are part of a broader public health discourse that focuses on individual choices to prevent health hazards(1)<\/sup><\/a>Sarah Nettleton, \u201cWomen and the new paradigm of health and medicine\u201d<\/a>. Critical Social Policy, 1996<\/i> <\/span><\/span>