“What Feels Right”: Affect, Emotion, and the Limitations of Infant-Feeding Policy

Abstract

This article explores the place of “feeling” in women's decisions around infant feeding (and specifically long-term breastfeeding). The argument is that policymakers and academics often overlook feeling (or an affective/emotional perspective) in favor of a focus on “informed choice” as a means of understanding and influencing behavior in this area of social life. In exploring the relationship between ideologies and bodily practices, this article therefore suggests that attention to affect and emotion might be useful in coming to a more nuanced view of how, why, and when individuals make the decisions that they do. Rather than advocating policymaking in this intimate sphere, however, the intention is to consider some of the implications of this approach for academic work around individual decision making and the regulation of society more broadly.