Breastfeeding and sexuality

The present article deals with breastfeeding and its relation with sexuality in an anthropological approach, based on interviews carried out with men and women in Brazil and France. In modern occidental society, double function of breast - maternal and erotic -, as well as representations that man and woman have of the maternity, come out as the base for important alterations in couple sexuality during the breastfeeding period. As maternal milk has a strong symbolic meaning in different cultures, breastfeeding goes beyond biological and nutritional contexts. Among others corporal substances, milk has an important role in the representations of the body, originating blood relations and interdictions in different societies. The analysis of Brazilian and French interviewees discourse reveals also the presence of some taboos when these two practices - sexuality and breastfeeding - are taken into consideration. The reflection on this matter is essential for the discussion of man-woman relations in the current Brazilian breastfeeding incentive context.

breastfeeding; sexuality; maternity; man-woman relations