Normalising the Breast: Early Childhood Services Battling the Bottle and the Breast

Abstract

Normalising practices as a tool for controlling the body and bodily processes have been well-documented using Foucault's theories, including debates around breastfeeding. In this article we explore how the ideas of ‘normalisation’ of the bottle-feeding culture of infants in New Zealand early childhood settings has become the accepted rhetoric and, despite attempts to ‘normalise’ breastfeeding, many early childhood teachers are both under-prepared and ill-equipped for protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding in their services. Early childhood settings should be places for promoting breastfeeding — both for active breastfeeding by the mother and, where this is not possible, feeding the infant with the mother's breast milk. Drawing on theories of Foucault, the complexity of ‘normalising’ both the bottle and the breast for feeding is explored. The ‘battle of the breast or the bottle’ for infant feeding in New Zealand early childhood services frames these discussions and highlights the difficulties in using ‘normalisation’ as a resistance or a change agent.