Keywords
Autonomy
Decision-making process
Situational analysis
Feminism
Submitted : 2023-05-27
Accepted : 2023-06-11
Published : 2023-06-26
Abstract
The health benefits of breastfeeding for infants have been established by numerous scientific studies. However, mothers who opt for alternatives to exclusive breastfeeding may feel guilty or that they have failed. This issue raises the importance of understanding the experiences of these mothers, who live on the fringes of public policies and healthcare practices that currently favor exclusive breastfeeding. This qualitative research presents a situational analysis of the experiences of nine mothers who chose alternatives to breastfeeding and interviewed in the form of semi-structured interviews. The results describe the decision-making processes involved in choosing an alternative to breastfeeding, situate this choice within a set of care measures that are culturally congruent with breastfeeding, and position this choice in relation to the social norm of breastfeeding. The discussion presents the processes of negotiation and resistance mobilized by the mothers concerning the different norms related to breastfeeding.
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