'But your latch looks fine!' Understanding women's experiences with breastfeeding pain
Octavia Calder-Dawe1, Eva Neely1
1School of Health, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Background:
Breastfeeding is an international public health priority and is considered optimal for both infants and parents. However, initiating and sustaining breast/chestfeeding can be difficult. Evidence suggests that parents commonly encounter physical barriers to feeding, with most experiencing at least some pain during initiation of breast/chestfeeding. Enduring feeding pain takes a physical and emotional toll, yet little is known about lived experiences of this pain.
Objective:
In this study, we explore parents' open-ended descriptions of their breastfeeding pain experiences, elicited through a mixed-methods online survey.
Methods:
Drawing on an affective discursive practice approach, we analyse 668 open-text answers to a question on experiences of feeding pain.
Results:
Our findings are organised into two parts that explore (1) the visceral and emotional experiences of feeding pain, including two themes of 'toe curling pain' and 'I would dread the latch'; and (2) contextual factors that made feeding pain hard(er) to deal with, including 'pain is normal, toughen up' and 'the latch looks good'.
Conclusion:
Material, affective, and discursive forces converge to constrain the articulation of feeding pain and limit access to support. We call for greater acknowledgement of these realities and for critical examination of the cultural assumptions that intensify this often-silenced experience.
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