Contesting authority in breastfeeding support: Maternal negotiation of professional and embodied knowledge

TL;DR

This study explores how mothers in New Zealand navigate breastfeeding support by balancing professional advice with their own embodied knowledge.

Contribution

The paper introduces the concept of epistemic partnership to reframe professional and maternal knowledge in breastfeeding support.

Findings

Mothers used strategies like selective disclosure and hybrid knowledge to resist prescriptive advice.

Breastfeeding is seen as both a technical skill and an embodied, relational practice.

The findings support feminist critiques of medicalised approaches to motherhood.

Abstract

Breastfeeding is a physiological process with profound relational, emotional, and cultural meaning, yet postnatal care often reduces it to a technical task. This study examines how mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand navigate breastfeeding support through Well Child services, focussing on tensions between professional expertise and embodied maternal knowledge. Using an online platform, Wāhi Kōrero, 420 anonymous stories were collected in response to the prompt: “Kōrero I wish I could’ve had with the Well Child nurse.” A subset of 149 stories referencing breastfeeding was analysed using thematic and discourse analysis. Findings reveal conflicting discourses: breastfeeding as an embodied, relational practice versus a technical skill requiring correction. Mothers did not reject professional expertise but resisted prescriptive, standardised advice through strategies such as selective disclosure, strategic compliance, and hybrid knowledge use. These findings contribute to feminist critiques of medicalised motherhood and suggest reframing professional expertise as an epistemic partnership that validates both clinical and maternal ways of knowing.

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