Abstract:
Early interruption of maternal breastfeeding is a public health problem in developed and developing societies, and social gender constructions and social inequalities between men and women contribute to the phenomenon’s complexity. The article reflects on the experiences of fathers and mothers with the reconfiguration of bodies, roles, and daily routines involved in breastfeeding. This was a qualitative study with an interpretative phenomenological focus and gender perspective in couples whose children were less than six months old, who were breastfeeding or had breastfed and agreed to participate voluntarily. A phenomenological analysis was performed on “units of meaning” in the four dimensions explored by phenomenology: corporality, time, space, and relations. Among the mothers, the analysis identified the existence of conflict and guilt associated with breastfeeding; the mothers’ need for sleep and rest made them experience breastfeeding as a role that overburdened them in their daily lives. Their spouses showed limitations resulting from social constructs of masculinity, in becoming involved with the infant and supporting the mother to continue breastfeeding. It is thus urgent for health professionals to discuss the processes of motherhood and fatherhood in relation to infants and breastfeeding, from an inclusive gender perspective that assigns importance to the mother-infant dyad, with special emphasis on the mother-infant-father triad.
Keywords:
Body Image; Interpersonal Relations; Breast Feeding