IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i2p393-404.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Secrets and lies: Breastfeeding and professional paid work

Author

Listed:
  • Gatrell, Caroline Jane

Abstract

This paper explores the conflict between health advice and organisational practice regarding breastfeeding. It focuses on the group of mothers with the highest rates of both breastfeeding initiation and of continuous employment following maternity leave: specifically, educated mothers in managerial and/or professional occupations. In this context, the paper investigates, through in-depth interviews, the embodied experiences of 20 heterosexual UK mothers, qualified to degree level, who returned to professional employment within 1 year of childbirth. The paper observes that mothers who attempted to combine breastfeeding with paid work did so with difficulty because the material activity of breastfeeding was 'taboo' within the workplace. Thus, the requirement to conform to organisational expectations regarding 'suitable' embodied behaviour contradicted health advice about what was 'best' for infant children. In order to comply with workplace requirements, mothers in the study were obliged either to cease breastfeeding or to conceal breastfeeding activities. In the light of mothers' experiences, the paper suggests that breastfeeding duration rates among professionally employed mothers can only be improved if negative attitudes about maternal bodies and employment are challenged and if employers, as well as mothers, are the focus of health initiatives aimed at promoting breastfeeding.

Suggested Citation

  • Gatrell, Caroline Jane, 2007. "Secrets and lies: Breastfeeding and professional paid work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 393-404, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:393-404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00148-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wajcman, Judy, 2005. "The Politics of Working Life," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199271917 edited by Edwards, Paul.
    2. Lawrence M. Berger & Jennifer Hill & Jane Waldfogel, 2005. "Maternity leave, early maternal employment and child health and development in the US," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages 29-47, February.
    3. Judith Galtry, 1997. "Suckling and Silence in the USA: The Costs and Benefits of Breastfeeding," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 1-24.
    4. Shirley Dex & Heather Joshi & Susan Macran & Andrew McCulloch, 1998. "Women's Employment Transitions Around Childbearing," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(1), pages 79-98, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miki Kobayashi & Emiko Usui, 2017. "Breastfeeding practices and parental employment in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 579-596, June.
    2. Gina Gaio Santos, 2015. "Narratives about Work and Family Life among Portuguese Academics," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Ayesha Masood & Muhammad Azfar Nisar, 2020. "Crushed between two stones: Competing institutional logics in the implementation of maternity leave policies in Pakistan," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1103-1126, November.
    4. Johnson, Sally & Williamson, Iain & Lyttle, Steven & Leeming, Dawn, 2009. "Expressing yourself: A feminist analysis of talk around expressing breast milk," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 900-907, September.
    5. Eliot L. Sherman, 2020. "Discretionary Remote Working Helps Mothers Without Harming Non-mothers: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1351-1374, March.
    6. Leiter, Valerie & Agiliga, Alexis & Kennedy, Evangeline & Mecham, Emma, 2022. "Pay at the pump?: Problems with electric breast pumps," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    7. Robyn Lee, 2018. "Breastfeeding Bodies: Intimacies at Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 77-90, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rossin, Maya, 2011. "The effects of maternity leave on children's birth and infant health outcomes in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 221-239, March.
    2. Tatiana Karabchuk, 2016. "The subjective well-being of women in Europe: children, work and employment protection legislation," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 15(2), pages 219-245, November.
    3. Luc Behaghel & Maria Florencia Pinto, 2024. "Extended maternity leave and children's long‐term development," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 126(2), pages 224-253, April.
    4. Lauber, Verena & Thomas, Lampert, 2014. "The Effect of Early Universal Daycare on Child Weight Problems," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100399, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Magdalena M. Muszynska, 2004. "Employment after childbearing: a comparative study of Italy and Norway," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2004-030, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Løken, Katrine V. & Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Holm Reiso, Katrine, 2018. "Single mothers and their children: Evaluating a work-encouraging welfare reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 1-20.
    7. Bidisha Mandal & Brian Roe & Sara Fein, 2014. "Work and breastfeeding decisions are jointly determined for higher socioeconomic status US mothers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 237-257, June.
    8. Dragoș Adăscăliței & Jason Heyes & Pedro Mendonça, 2022. "The intensification of work in Europe: A multilevel analysis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 324-347, June.
    9. Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Frances & Fahey, Éamonn & Kenny, Oona, 2018. "Maternal employment and the cost of childcare in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS73.
    10. Emily H Emmott & Ruth Mace, 2015. "Practical Support from Fathers and Grandmothers Is Associated with Lower Levels of Breastfeeding in the UK Millennium Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-12, July.
    11. Mendolia, Silvia & Walker, Ian, 2014. "The effect of personality traits on subject choice and performance in high school: Evidence from an English cohort," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 47-65.
    12. Christopher House & John Laitner & Dmitriy Stolyarov, 2008. "Valuing Lost Home Production Of Dual Earner Couples," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(2), pages 701-736, May.
    13. Peter, Frauke H. & Schober, Pia S. & Spiess, Katharina C., 2016. "Early Birds in Day Care: The Social Gradient in Starting Day Care and Children’s Non-cognitive Skills," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 62(4), pages 725-751.
    14. Khanam, Rasheda & Nghiem, Son & Connelly, Luke, 2016. "The effects of parental leave on child health and postnatal care: Evidence from Australia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 17-29.
    15. Fagan, Colette. & Norman, Helen. & Smith, Mark. & Gonzalez Menendez, María C., 2014. "In search of good quality part-time employment," ILO Working Papers 994839683402676, International Labour Organization.
    16. Michael Anyadike-Danes & Duncan McVicar, 2010. "My Brilliant Career: Characterizing the Early Labor Market Trajectories of British Women From Generation X," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(3), pages 482-512, February.
    17. Stearns, Jenna, 2015. "The effects of paid maternity leave: Evidence from Temporary Disability Insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 85-102.
    18. Müller Christian, 2007. "Frühkindliche Bildung und Betreuung in Tageseinrichtungen als Staatsaufgabe / The Governmental Provision of Early Childhood Education and Care," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 58(1), pages 131-148, January.
    19. Davia, María A. & Legazpe, Nuria, 2012. "Decisiones laborales de las mujeres casadas o cohabitantes en España/Employment Decisions of Married or Cohabiting Women in Spain," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 1065(22.)-1, Diciembre.
    20. David McClendon & Janet Kuo & R. Raley, 2014. "Opportunities to Meet: Occupational Education and Marriage Formation in Young Adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(4), pages 1319-1344, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:2:p:393-404. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.