Table of contents:
Introduction
1. The Birthing of the Production Line
2. Formulating Infant Feeding
3. Participating in Production
4. ‘It is so demanding’ – Breastfeeding as Labour
5. ‘Time to Care’ – Midwifery Work at the End of the Medical Production Line
6. Breastfeeding and Midwifery Work: Reconceptualising Bodies, Time and Relationships
Breastfeeding in Hospital: Mothers, midwives and the production line
Fiona Dykes
'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers – frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalised surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives.
Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals. It highlights that, in spite of heavy promotion of breastfeeding, there is often a lack of support for women who begin to breastfeed in hospitals, thus challenging the current system of postnatal care within a culture in which neither service-user nor provider feel satisfied.
Incorporating recommendations for policy and practice on infant feeding, ‘Breastfeeding in Hospitals’ is highly relevant to health professionals and breastfeeding supporters as well as to students in health and social care, medical anthropology and medical sociology because it explores practice issues while contextualising them within a broad social, political and economic context.
Fiona Dykes is a Reader in Maternal and Infant Health and leads the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) at University of Central Lancashire, UK.
Midwifery / Medical Sociology
'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers –frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalised surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives.
Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals. It highlights that, in spite of heavy promotion of breastfeeding, there is often a lack of support for women who begin to breastfeed in hospitals, thus challenging the current system of postnatal care within a culture in which neither service-user nor provider feel satisfied.
Incorporating recommendations for policy and practice on infant feeding, ‘Breastfeeding in Hospitals’ is highly relevant to health professionals and breastfeeding supporters as well as to students in health and social care, medical anthropology and medical sociology as it explores practice issues while contextualising them within a broad social, political and economic context.
Using case studies and interview material of mothers' experiences, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals.
Introduction
1. The Birthing of the Production Line
2. Formulating Infant Feeding
3. Participating in Production
4. ‘It is so demanding’ – Breastfeeding as Labour
5. ‘Time to Care’ – Midwifery Work at the End of the Medical Production Line
6. Breastfeeding and Midwifery Work: Reconceptualising Bodies, Time and Relationships
Breastfeeding in Hospital: Mothers, midwives and the production line
Fiona Dykes
'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers – frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalised surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives.
Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals. It highlights that, in spite of heavy promotion of breastfeeding, there is often a lack of support for women who begin to breastfeed in hospitals, thus challenging the current system of postnatal care within a culture in which neither service-user nor provider feel satisfied.
Incorporating recommendations for policy and practice on infant feeding, ‘Breastfeeding in Hospitals’ is highly relevant to health professionals and breastfeeding supporters as well as to students in health and social care, medical anthropology and medical sociology because it explores practice issues while contextualising them within a broad social, political and economic context.
Fiona Dykes is a Reader in Maternal and Infant Health and leads the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) at University of Central Lancashire, UK.
Midwifery / Medical Sociology
'Breast is best' is today’s prevailing mantra. However, women – particularly first-time mothers –frequently feel unsupported when they come to feed their baby. This new experience often takes place in the impersonal and medicalised surroundings of a hospital maternity ward where women are 'seen to' by overworked midwives.
Using a UK-based ethnographic study and interview material, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals. It highlights that, in spite of heavy promotion of breastfeeding, there is often a lack of support for women who begin to breastfeed in hospitals, thus challenging the current system of postnatal care within a culture in which neither service-user nor provider feel satisfied.
Incorporating recommendations for policy and practice on infant feeding, ‘Breastfeeding in Hospitals’ is highly relevant to health professionals and breastfeeding supporters as well as to students in health and social care, medical anthropology and medical sociology as it explores practice issues while contextualising them within a broad social, political and economic context.
Using case studies and interview material of mothers' experiences, this book provides a new, radical and critical perspective on the ways in which women experience breastfeeding in hospitals.