Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2020-9
Mothering at the Intersection of Marginality: Exploring Breastfeeding Beliefs and Practices Among Women From Nova Scotia,Canada Who Identify as Overweight,Low Income,and Food Insecure
Breastfeeding is represented to support healthy body weight and food security. However, breastfeeding may be negatively impacted by high maternal body weight and income-related food insecurity. Guided by feminist poststructural methodology, this study explored breastfeeding beliefs and practices among women from Nova Scotia, Canada, identifying as income-related food insecure and overweight. Participants who were pregnant for the first time and intending to breastfeed participated in three interviews: prenatal (n = 8), first month postpartum (n = 6), and 3 months postpartum (n = 6). Employing discourse analyses, we found that participants’ experiences aligned with dominant discursive representations of these health issues, informed through normative understandings of what it means to mother. However, some participants resisted and reframed what constitutes good mothering to identify with maternal subjectivities that were context specific. The findings have implications for understanding how discourses shape maternal identities and their effects for breastfeeding and other health-related practices.
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