Militant Lactivism?
eBook - PDF

Militant Lactivism?

Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and France

  1. 278 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Militant Lactivism?

Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and France

About this book

Following networks of mothers in London and Paris, the author profiles the narratives of women who breastfeed their children to full term, typically a period of several years, as part of an 'attachment parenting' philosophy. These mothers talk about their decision to continue breastfeeding as 'the natural thing to do': 'evolutionarily appropriate', 'scientifically best' and 'what feels right in their hearts'. Through a theoretical focus on knowledge claims and accountability, the author frames these accounts within a wider context of 'intensive parenting', arguing that parenting practices – infant feeding in particular – have become a highly moralized affair for mothers, practices which they feel are a critical aspect of their 'identity work'. The book investigates why, how and with what implications some of these mothers describe themselves as 'militant lactivists' and reflects on wider parenting culture in the UK and France. Discussing gender, feminism and activism, this study contributes to kinship and family studies by exploring how relatedness is enacted in conjunction to constructions of the self.

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Yes, you can access Militant Lactivism? by Charlotte Faircloth in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Gynecology, Obstetrics & Midwifery. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. List of Illustrations
  3. Epigraph
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Introduction
  6. Part I — The Context of Contemporary Mothering
  7. Chapter 1 — Intensive Motherhood and Identity Work
  8. Chapter 2 — Infant Feeding and Intensive Motherhood
  9. Part II — La Leche League
  10. Chapter 3 — Contextualising 'Full-Term' Breastfeeding
  11. Chapter 4 — La Leche League: Philosophy and Community
  12. Chapter 5 — 'Finding My Tribe'
  13. Part III — Accounting for Full-Term Breastfeeding
  14. Chapter 6 — 'It's Natural': Some Cultural Contradictions
  15. Chapter 7 — 'What Science Says Is Best': Science as Dogma
  16. Chapter 8 — 'What Feels Right in My Heart': Hormones, Morality and Affective Breastfeeding
  17. Part IV — Contextualising Intensive Motherhood
  18. Chapter 9 — Mothering as Identity Work in Comparative Perspective: The Case of France
  19. Conclusion
  20. Appendix 1
  21. Appendix 2
  22. References
  23. Index