This article is part of a series on Breastfeeding and feminism: Reproductive health, rights and justice, edited by Dr Miriam H Labbok, Dr Paige Hall Smith, and Ms Emily C Taylor.

Debate

Is breastfeeding really invisible, or did the health care system just choose not to notice it?

Chris Mulford

WIC Breastfeeding Initiative, Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative, USA

author email corresponding author email

International Breastfeeding Journal 2008, 3:13doi:10.1186/1746-4358-3-13

Published:	4 August 2008

Abstract

There are innumerable myths and misconceptions about breastfeeding that minimize its importance; these often keep health workers from providing effective care to support and protect breastfeeding. They are compounded by lack of basic and applied research, and by the cultural invisibility of breastfeeding in the United States. This paper highlights some of the blind spots and suggests the importance of an approach that places breastfeeding promotion and advocacy within the context of women's lives. As we work to ensure that the health care system provides good breastfeeding care, we need to guard against letting the medicalization of infant feeding keep us from remembering that breastfeeding is something that mothers and children do, in all the aspects of their private and public lives.