Gendering in infant feeding discourses: The good mother and the absent father

Abstract

Contemporary breastfeeding discourses in Aotearoa/New Zealand – encapsulated in the ‘breast is best’ slogan – have emerged from a convergence of feminist and medical discourses. However, these discourses have developed in ways that limit the ways in which women care for their infants if they wish to be understood as ‘good mothers’. In this article, I demonstrate how these ideologies appear to inform material intended for new parents and health workers in Aotearoa/New Zealand, while simultaneously working to exclude fathers from both decision-making and involvement in much of the care of new-born infants. Current policy also constrains the ways in which health workers may provide new parents with information about formula feeding. I suggest that, in this context, neither the feminist nor medical goals that originally informed contemporary breastfeeding discourses are being effectively realised.