Intensive Mothering by Linda Rose Ennis

Author:Linda Rose Ennis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Demeter Press
Published: 2014-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Is Attachment Mothering

Intensive Mothering?

CHARLOTTE FAIRCLOTH

THIS CHAPTER PROFILES RESEARCH with women in London who are members of La Leche League (LLL), an international breastfeeding support organisation founded in 1956 in the United States to support “mothering through breastfeeding.” The text focuses on the accounts of a small but significant population of mothers within LLL who practise “attachment mothering.” Attachment parenting, now a global movement with roots in the UK and the U.S., uses an evolutionary rationale of a “hominid blueprint” for care, which advocates long-term proximity between caretaker and infant as a means of optimizing child development. Typical practices amongst attachment parents include breastfeeding until the child “outgrows the need,” often for a period of several years; breastfeeding “on cue,” whenever the child shows an interest; “bed-sharing,” until the child decides to move to their own bed; and “baby-wearing,” carrying the baby with the use of a sling or similar. Within this volume, this paper therefore provides a unique perspective, by focusing on an urban European setting, exploring the relationship between intensive motherhood, feeding practices and capitalist culture.

Feeding, arguably the most conspicuously moralized element of mothering, was the focus of the study. Because of its vital importance for the survival and healthy development of infants, feeding is a highly scrutinized domain where mothers must counter any charges of practicing unusual, harmful or morally suspect feeding techniques (Murphy).

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that breastfeeding in developed countries should be exclusive for six months and continue “for up to two years, or beyond” in conjunction with other foods. There are no statistics for the number of children breastfed beyond a year in the UK, though by six months 75 percent of children are totally weaned off breastmilk, and only two percent of women breastfeed exclusively for the recommended six months (Department of Health 2005, the most up to date figures at the time of research). Women breastfeeding to full term are non-conventional, inviting critical engagement with the “accountability strategies” they undertake to explain why they do what they do (Strathern). Typically, these mothers narrate their decision to continue breastfeeding as “natural”: “evolutionarily appropriate,” “scientifically best,” and “what feels right in their hearts” (Faircloth). Attention to “identity work” (Goffman), the narrative processes of self-making that mothers engage in as they raise their children, is part of an argument that for certain middle-class parents in the UK, parenting has become a key means by which mothers (and fathers) develop their own identities.

Indeed, these mothers provide a case study by which to explore the recent “intensification” of mothering. This is a trend identified by a range of scholars writing about mothering in both the UK and the U.S., as well as beyond (Arendell; Douglas and Michaels; Faircloth, Hoffman and Layne; Hays; Lee; Lee, Macvarish and Bristow; Warner; this volume). According to these scholars, the social role of mothering has expanded in recent years to encompass a range of tasks beyond the straightforward rearing of children. Above simply feeding, clothing and sheltering, parents do much more for their children today: it is this “more” that is of interest here (Hays 5).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.