Mothers have often been associated with conservatism: linked to cloyingly sentimental cultural ideals or depicted as victims of patriarchal oppression.
In the 19th century, the middle-class mother was idealised as the “angel in the house”, while during the boom years after the second world war she was depicted as a devoted homemaker in her suburban castle.
During the 1970s, second-wave feminists thoroughly critiqued the relegation of women to childrearing. This left some with a lingering sense that becoming a mother was an old-fashioned or politically regressive choice. Louisa Lawson used her status as a mother for political clout in the ‘woman movement’.
Midwifery researchers find teenage, obese and smoking mothers are less likely to breastfeed
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As a young new mother Amanda Franks felt uncomfortable to breastfeed.
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When Amanda Franks had a baby at age 16 at a country hospital, an experience with a midwife put her off breastfeeding her firstborn.
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A La Trobe University study has looked at data from 7,500 women who had a baby at Bendigo Health between 2010 and 2017
Researchers found only 4.2 per cent of teenage mothers went on to breastfeed their infants
Overall, mothers who smoke, are obese, or are in their teenage years are less likely to initiate breastfeeding
Doctors say COVID vaccine should be tested on pregnant women
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A demand by Australian womenâs health experts that pregnant and breastfeeding women be included in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines was ignored, and doctors say leaving them out is discriminatory.
Representatives of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Breastfeeding Association of Australia, and midwifery expert associate professor Karleen Gribble said pregnant women should have been allowed to volunteer for vaccine trials and the fact they were not means âmany more women are at riskâ.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women were not included in vaccine trials for COVID-19 but some womenâs health experts argue it was discriminatory not to have included them.