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Journal of Human Lactation
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Connection and Pleasure, Disruption and Distress: Women's Experience of Breastfeeding

Virginia Schmied, RN, CM, BA, MA, PhD

Family Health Research Unit, 2nd Floor James Laws House, St. George Hospital, Kogarah NSW 2217, Australia.

Lesley Barclay, RN, CM, BA, Med, PhD

Family Health Research Unit, South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Interview data collected in a recent study of first time motherhood were used to explore the experience of breastfeeding. Twenty-five Australian women participated in a series of semistructured interviews begun during late pregnancy and continuing until 6 months postpartum. Discourse analysis was used to examine the transcribed data. The analysis revealed that breastfeeding was central to these women's experience of motherhood. The majority of women were strongly committed to breastfeeding. Their decision to breastfeed was influenced by a range of public and professional discourses. Breastfeeding was also an embodied experience that was difficult to articulate. For some, this embodied experience was connected, harmonious and pleasurable and for others, disruptive, unpleasant, and violent. This paper describes the embodied experience of breastfeeding and highlights the complexity of the relationship between embodied experience and contemporary meanings and context of breastfeeding.

Key Words: breastfeeding • women's experience • embodiment • feminism • discourse analysis

Journal of Human Lactation, Vol. 15, No. 4, 325-334 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/089033449901500410
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