A feminist content analysis of the popular and health professional literatures on infant feeding, 1960-1996.

• Main Author: Soklaridis, Sophie.
• Other Authors: Denis, Ann B.
• Format: Others
• Published: University of Ottawa (Canada) 2009
• Subjects: Women's Studies.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/4126; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-13592

A feminist content analysis examines how the popular and health professional literatures discuss infant feeding practises from the 1960's to 1996. Three research questions were constructed to address women's role(s) and obligations as mothers with respect to infant feeding. The first research question examined the advantages and disadvantages associated with particular methods of infant feeding. The second research question examined how (if at all) a woman's time, energy, and bodily fluids are appropriated, and how the development of self-actualisation might be connected to infant feeding practise. The third research question examined how the popular and health professional literatures discussed the various support systems available to the mother in order to analyse the way in which the mother is situated culturally and socially. The results of the three were theorized and operationalized using the concepts of alienation, appropriation of women, self-actualisation, and diversity. These various concepts were found within socialist and materialist feminism and social psychology.