Mandated Breastfeeding: Women's Bodies As a Solution to Global Poverty

As a means to address high rates of child malnutrition, stunting, and infant mortality, in 2009 Indonesia enacted Health Law No. 36 stating that children have the right to be breastfed.  Thus, exclusive breastfeeding is now mandatory until infants are 6 months old.  To add teeth to the law, in 2011 the Indonesian legislature added stiff fines and potential jail time as penalties for employers, relatives, the general public or others who pose barriers to women’s ability to achieve this goal (Soejarjo and Zehner 2011). 

In February 2013, the U.K. NGO Save the Children launched their campaign to promote breastfeeding in poor countries with their report “Superfood for Babies: How Overcoming Barriers to Breastfeeding will Save Children’s Lives.”  Like a superhero, breastfeeding was touted as one of the most important solutions to the problems facing the most innocent of all victims—infants in developing countries.  Fingers were pointed at formula companies, policy makers, grandparents, fathers, and health care providers for posing barriers to breastfeeding.  The report focused on the heroic efforts NGOs and other actors can make to “empower” poor women to make the “right” feeding decisions; however little recognition was given to women as possible heroes.  Rather, women were portrayed as either victims of their environments or ignorant villains doing the wrong thing. 

In this talk, I will explore the implications of legislating women’s bodies as a solution to structural problems, as well as the problematic structural barriers posed to women being able to do what they are told to do.  By exploring the Indonesian case and the framing of breastfeeding campaigns, I aim to demonstrate how breastfeeding promotion can be both empowering and detrimental for women.  I will conclude with a possible way forward drawing on an ethic of care and a praxis of humility.