Infant Feeding Decisions in Two Cultural Locations

The aim of the project is to critically examine the factors influencing mothers decisions on infant feeding in two different cultural locations: Ireland and Finland and to provide innovative research on womens experiences of breastfeeding and bottle-feeding. The project highlights that infant feeding decisions are not made independent of social and cultural context.

There are two specific objectives: 1) To explore and identify the cultural expectations and policies concerning infant feeding in Ireland and Finland.

This objective is the groundwork for RO2, and informants are people working and volunteering in breastfeeding associations and midwife organizations. 2) To research infant feeding as a contextual practice that has personal, cultural, and social levels.

This is achieved by analysing the interview narratives conducted with mothers from both countries while being sensitive to intersectional differences and socially constructed subject positions.

The research method is qualitative and has an interdisciplinary approach combining content analysis and narrative analysis methods with gender studies, media studies and sociology. An intersectional reading is used while analysing the data.

The project contributes to the research of infant feeding and breastfeeding which is set as a health priority throughout Europe.

The reasons behind breastfeeding or bottle feeding are various and this research adds knowledge and understanding to the different levels of infant feeding.

The breastfeeding rates in selected countries are very different; in Finland over 95 % of mothers initiate breastfeeding while in Ireland the rates are much lower and little more than 60 % are breastfed. This makes Irelands breastfeeding rates one of the lowest in the EU.

Still, both countries are affected by the savings targeted to maternity services, the lack of support in the early days of mothering, the pressures of profit gaining formula industry, and the constant sexualisation of breasts.