Beliefs about Men’s Sexual Self-Control Predict Attitudes toward Women’s Immodest Clothing and Public Breastfeeding

Why do some people have negative views toward mundane behaviors such as women breastfeeding in public or wearing revealing clothing? We suggest that moral opposition to these behaviors may partly stem from their perceived effects on men’s sexual responses. We hypothesized that (a) people would stereotype men as having relatively less control of their sexual urges (i.e., lower sexual self-control) compared to women and that (b) stereotypes about men’s sexual self-control would uniquely predict attitudes about women’s mundane (but potentially sexually arousing) behaviors. Five studies show that (a) people stereotyped men (vs. women) as lacking sexual self-control (Study 1) and (b) endorsement of this stereotype was associated with opposition to public breastfeeding and immodest clothing (Studies 2-5). The effects hold even after controlling for potential confounds and seem specific to relevant moral domains, although women (vs. men) tend not to view these behaviors as moral issues.

Breastfeeding in Public: Challenges and Evidence-Based Breastfeeding-Friendly Initiatives to Overcome the Barriers

IntroductionBreastfeeding is the safest mode of infant feeding that is readily available at the right temperature and does not require supplies for its preparation. Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding, it is often challenging for breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed in public.MethodsA review of the literature was undertaken to explore challenges hindering breastfeeding in public and ascertain evidence-based breastfeeding-friendly strategies to overcome those barriers.ResultsMajor barriers to breastfeeding in public include negative public perceptions of breastfeeding, sociocultural barriers, embarrassment/lack of comfort, stigmatization, sexualization of breast, and nonconducive environment in public spaces. Evidence-based strategies to support breastfeeding in public include normalization of breastfeeding in public, increasing the visibility of breastfeeding through social media and public events, empowerment of breastfeeding mothers, positive role modeling, social support, and environmental modifications.ConclusionImplementation of evidence-based and innovative breastfeeding-friendly initiatives are essential to combat challenges surrounding breastfeeding in public spaces.

The Impact of Breast Pump Usage of Breastfeeding Mother: Scoping Review

Background: WHO recommended that mother breastfeeds exclusively for the fisrt six months. However, a lot of mothers do not realize it. Generally, the anxiety on milk production, the family and occupation commitment, waking up at night and perceiving uncomfortable breastfeeding in public place become the objectives of this study that is for reviewing evidence related the impact of breast pum usage on breastfeeding mother. Method: According to ArskeyO’Malley include (1)Identifying scoping review questions are conducting review focus with PICO framework (2)Identifying relevant article (3)Selecting article (4)Data Charting and (5)Arranging, summing up and reporting findings. Results: The theme of scoping review is the impact of breastfeeding success, the negative outcome of breast pump, and the factors which influence decision for mother’s milk pumping as well supporting for breast pump. Conclusion: the impact of breast pump usage affects breastfeeding duration and mother’s milk production as well as painful breast.

Sounding a Quietening: Breastfeeding Choreographies and the Sonic–Corporeal Dialogue of Maternal Experience

Let Down (2018) is a practice-as-research (PaR) dance performance that communicates women's experiences of breastfeeding in Northern Ireland, a jurisdiction with one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, due, in part, to the social stigma attached to breastfeeding in public. Choreographed in collaboration with a composer and social scientists, Let Down is a duet for two lactating women who dance alongside a digitally transposed and augmented soundscape of sonic aspects of maternal experience, and improvise to the live sounds produced by infants in the audience. The work responds to a ‘quietening’ of maternal corporeality in some Western societies through a feminist dramaturgy of sonic disruption that refigures intermedial relations between sound and movement in performance to make unheard experience sensible. Attending to the complex sociopolitical and affective terrain that informed the work's creation, I discuss how a methodology of ‘quietening’ developed during the choreographic process generated space for a dialogue between private and public spheres of experience. I propose that the methodological concept of quietening offers both an alternative approach to choreographies of affect, and a critical framework for questioning representations of socially ‘quietened’ corporealities.

Inhabitation of Inhibition and Creative Freedom for Breastfeeding Mothers

In this edited interview, psychologists Nisha Gupta and Eric Greene interview Lori Jordan Fountain, psychology doctoral student and filmmaker of Inhabitation of Inhibition, an autophenomenological short film about the lived experience of breastfeeding in public. Despite the known benefits, antipathetic attitudes toward nursing in public persist, and “breastfeeding is perceived by many as dirty, sexual, embarrassing, and generally, something that should be kept behind closed doors.” Inspired by Sartre’s notion of the gaze, the mother in the film takes up the self as seen by the Other. By assuming the guilt of which she is blamed, she embodies and enacts the judgments placed on her, foregrounding the covert oppression endured by breastfeeding mothers. In this interview, Lori describes the liberation felt when responding to the objectifying gaze—a gaze that perceives her as a machine-like milk dispenser, a bad mother, and a sexual object. She shares how satire enables her to ‘flip the script’ in order to demonstrate, address, and challenge the absurd, oppressive narratives that shame breastfeeding mothers. The conversation explores how protesting this covert oppression through the language of filmmaking allowed Lori to work through it directly and experientially, just as one might in psychotherapy.

Breastfeeding Perspectives: Reactions to Breastfeeding Imagery and Social Norms

Objectives Normative behaviors surrounding breastfeeding in public and the community can influence breastfeeding behaviors and inhibit sustained breastfeeding. The goal of this research is to better understand how a diverse group of women perceive images of racially/ethnically similar and different women breastfeeding. The aim is to uncover biases that may impede breastfeeding goals and promotion. Methods An online mixed-methods survey was completed by a sample of 144 mothers with children 2 years of age or younger. The survey included images of women of varying racial/ethnic groups breastfeeding in various settings. Respondents generated word associations for the images and indicated the appropriateness and ease of breastfeeding for each image. Responses were timed to ascertain cognitive dissonance. Supplemental questions examined descriptive, injunctive and group norms, in line with the Theory of Normative Social Behavior. Results A sample that included 42% non-White individuals and 31% Hispanic/Latino individuals, 73% of whom breastfed their most recent child, responded to the survey. On average, respondents took longer to respond to questions about the appropriateness of images of Black and Hispanic women breastfeeding than images of White or Asian women, even though their responses of appropriateness were roughly equal, demonstrating cognitive dissonance in norms and perceptions. Further, with direct comparisons, women were twice as likely to say breastfeeding was easier for an image of a White mother breastfeeding than an image of a Black or Hispanic mother breastfeeding, regardless of respondent racial/ethnic identity. Finally, differences in image appropriateness differed most significantly by the setting (i.e., public vs. private). Conclusions Women are influenced by racial/ethnic biases about breastfeeding ease and appropriateness as well as norms surrounding behaviors of breastfeeding in public settings or in front of others. Future work is needed to dismantle these biases that may influence breastfeeding behaviors and inequitably impact the feeding choice and health of mothers and infants. Funding Sources This research was funded by an internal research grant from Fairfield University.

Barriers to exclusive breastfeeding: A cross-sectional study among mothers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding provides numerous benefits to the health of infants, mothers, economics, and the environment. However, during the exclusive breastfeeding period, the mothers face many barriers.Objective: This study aimed to describe the perceived barrier of breastfeeding and compare its differences among mothers in Vietnam according to demographic and individual characteristics.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 246 women in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Data were derived from the original survey using a self-administered questionnaire asking about the barriers of breastfeeding in three aspects: maternal, infant, and socio-environment. Descriptive statistics, Independent t-test, and ANOVA were used to describe the mothers’ characteristics and the breastfeeding barriers.Results: The barrier from the infants was the most noticeable, followed by socio-environment and maternal barriers, respectively. Breastfeeding in public places (M = 2.93, SD = 0.92), baby’s illness (M = 2.74, SD = 0.99), and insufficient milk supply (M = 2.70, SD =0.99) were considered as major barriers to six-month exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Among the age groups, mothers who were more than 35 years old perceived had lower breastfeeding barriers than the younger mothers (F = 3.67, p = 0.03).Conclusion: The investigation of the barriers against exclusive breastfeeding practice can help nurses and midwives develop breastfeeding promotion programs to promote exclusive breastfeeding rate for women in Vietnam.Funding: This study was funded by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Breasts and the city: an urban ethnography of infant feeding in public spaces within Cardiff, United Kingdom

Background Internationally, women report challenges breastfeeding in public spaces. This study aimed to investigate the social-spatial aspects of public spaces in one UK city, Cardiff, in order to suggest possible barriers and facilitators to breastfeeding in public spaces. Methods The study observation location guide prioritised places that had been reported as hostile to breastfeeding or breastfeeding friendly in the existing literature. Data were collected between April and September 2018 at various times of day, in several areas of the city, and included transport (n = 4), transport hubs (n = 3), high streets (n = 4), cafes (n = 2), a large city centre shopping complex, comprising of three joined shopping malls and a large city centre department store containing a third café. Low inference field notes were written on an encrypted smart phone and expanded soon after. Data were analysed thematically using deductive codes based on the observation schedule. Additional inductive codes relating to places were added. Results Overall, public transport and the city centre were inhospitable environments for those who might need to breastfeed, and even more so for those who need to express breastmilk. The core barriers and facilitators across locations were the availability of appropriate seating coupled with either high privacy or politely unimposing strangers (civil inattention). The one variation to this model arose from the department store café, where civil inattention was not performed and there was low privacy, but breastfeeding occurred anyway. Conclusions This research highlights the physical and social barriers to breastfeeding within one urban city centre in the UK and its associated transport links. It is clear that there is an urgent need for change in urban city centres and public transport if countries are to meet their aims in relation to increasing breastfeeding rates. Interventions will need to be multifaceted, accounting for social norms relating to infant feeding as well as changes to the physical environment, policy and potentially legal change. Further research should be undertaken in other countries to examine the extent to which hostile environments exist, and if correcting these could facilitate breastfeeding and reduce gender-based violence.

(Auto)ethnography of Breastfeeding in Northern Ireland

This article takes an autoethnographic perspective to examine women’s experiences of breastfeeding in Northern Ireland (NI). It focuses on how social and cultural attitudes inform the practices of breastfeeding. The article draws on the feminist perspectives on breastfeeding that point to women’s agency and autonomy over their bodies. It explores how breastfeeding fits into the culture of risk society and attempts to minimize the risks associated with breastfeeding by health professionals in NI. The article then discusses the questions of breastfeeding in public and extended breastfeeding in social/cultural and religious context of NI, also raising the questions of ethnic backgrounds and social class as a factor contributing to mothers’ decisions whether to breastfeed or bottle-feed their babies. Finally, the author focuses on resistance to the hegemonic discourse encouraging formula feeding in NI society. The article analyses counternarratives to the dominant narratives of how to nurse children, pointing to mothers’ agency and a sense of empowerment.