I think Kathy Dettwyler is absolutely right: the eroticism of breasts is
cultural. I think Fiona Giles is right, too: We have to understand how the
cultural eroticism of breasts affects breastfeeding behavior. While I am
interested in how other cultures look at various parts of the body as
erotic, I live and work in THIS culture. The barriers to breastfeeding that
arise because of confusion over breasts as articles of sexual equipment,
milk as excretory material, 'ownership' of breasts, and incest taboos, etc.
all arise from the context of sexuality within THIS culture.
In an interesting paper (Freed, Jones, Schanler, Prenatal Determination of
Demographic and Attitutdinal Factors Regarding Feeding Practice in an
Indigent Population, Am J Perinatol 1992, 9(5/6):420-424) the authors looked
at a black, white, and hispanic population (sample size 307) in Houston to
identify significant obstacles to bfg. "The most significant variable [for
risk factors for bottle feeding] was lack of support for breast-feeding from
a significant other, husband, mother, other relative or friend...Women who
intended to bottle-feed overwhelmingly perceived a negative outlook on
breastfeeding by their significant others."
Freed, Fraley, and Jones, Attitudes of Expenctant Fathers Regarding
Breastfeeding, Peds 1992, 90:224-227, surveyed men whose partners were
pregnant. Fathers of women planning to formula feed were more likely to
believe breastfeeding is bad for breasts, make breasts ugly, and interferes
with sex. Interestingly, BOTH the fathers who supported bfg and the
fathers who wanted their partners to bottle feed thought that women should
NOT breastfeed in public. I see this as an indication that the majority of
the men in the study (and these were men from a higher socio-econom. level)
had issues about public exposure of their wives breasts. The authors
concluded that fathers need to be included and actively solicited for
participation in all breastfeeding ed. courses currently taught.
I only teach one prenatal bfg class for a large local OB practice. I make
it a point to confront the issues raised above. I try to do this with
humor, get people laughing about some of their own squeamishness about
whether this is "going to be gross" as one dad put it. Many of the men are
genuinely puzzeled about whether they are going to be able to think of their
wives as sexual partners during lactation. It's a real problem, rarely
discussed. I'm delighted to see dialog here about it, but hope that the
discussion doesn't get too bogged down in the issues about which sexual
position various mammals prefer. The point is, how do we remove barriers to
bfg that stem from cultural sexuality issues?
Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
http://www.lactnews.com
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