Breastfeeding in Tzeltal indigenous communities in Mexico: embodied and participatory experiences for policy recommendations

TL;DR

This study explores breastfeeding experiences in a Tzeltal Indigenous community in Mexico to inform more inclusive and culturally sensitive breastfeeding policies.

Contribution

The study contributes a qualitative, intercultural analysis of breastfeeding as a relational and embodied practice in an Indigenous community.

Findings

Breastfeeding in Tzeltal communities is a deeply relational and communal experience shaped by sociocultural and cosmogonic factors.

The study highlights the need for intercultural approaches to breastfeeding support that recognize local beliefs and practices.

Findings advocate for policies that integrate affective, embodied, and collective dimensions of maternal care.

Abstract

As a pluricultural country, Mexico must promote breastfeeding through intercultural approaches. Although existing research remains limited, the exclusion and precarious living conditions experienced by many Indigenous communities render such efforts both challenging and essential for reducing inequalities in breastfeeding support. Moreover, while low breastfeeding rates at both global and local levels have been extensively documented through quantitative studies, the lived experiences of Indigenous mothers remain highly variable and underexplored. To date, qualitative research centered on Indigenous breastfeeding mothers’ perspectives is scarce. This paper presents a case study of breastfeeding practices within a Tzeltal Indigenous community, examining the embodied, co-participatory, and situated dimensions of maternal care.

Using qualitative methods and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis within the ‘Operational Research Group and Participatory Inquiry´ framework. A total of 19 Tzeltal-speaking mothers who were breastfeeding their children participated in the study, conducted on November 12, 2024, in the Tzeltal community of San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas. Data were collected through group sessions documented with field notes and audio recordings. The material was analyzed using conventional content analysis with emergent coding, grounding interpretations in participants’ lived, embodied, affective, communal, and contextual breastfeeding experiences, allowing categories to be inductively generated from participants’ narratives.

The findings highlight that breastfeeding practices within a Tzeltal Indigenous community are not merely an individual act but a deeply relational, embodied and communitarian experience shaped by sociocultural, cosmogonic and spatial-contextual factors.

This qualitative study, grounded in an intercultural perspective and centered on Indigenous mothers’ breastfeeding experiences, advocates for a more nuanced, interculturally oriented approach to breastfeeding promotion, protection, and support -one that recognizes the affective, embodied, and collective dimensions of maternal care. By attending to local beliefs, cosmogonies, and shared practices surrounding traditional breastfeeding, the study offers crucial insights that contribute to advancing reproductive justice for women, infants, and their communities, while underscoring the importance of intercultural strategies in the design and implementation of breastfeeding policies in a pluricultural country such as Mexico.