Connection and pleasure, disruption and distress: women's experience of breastfeeding

Interview data collected in a recent study of first time motherhood were used to explore the experience of breastfeeding. Twenty-five Australian women participated in a series of semistructured interviews begun during late pregnancy and continuing until 6 months postpartum. Discourse analysis was used to examine the transcribed data. The analysis revealed that breastfeeding was central to these women's experience of motherhood. The majority of women were strongly committed to breastfeeding. Their decision to breastfeed was influenced by a range of public and professional discourses. Breastfeeding was also an embodied experience that was difficult to articulate. For some, this embodied experience was connected, harmonious and pleasurable and for others, disruptive, unpleasant, and violent. This paper describes the embodied experience of breastfeeding and highlights the complexity of the relationship between embodied experience and contemporary meanings and context of breastfeeding.