Just Follow the (Ten) Steps Breastfeeding Education in Baby-Friendly Hospitals

Main Article Content

Jaclyn Wells

Abstract

This study investigates infant feeding rhetoric from the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), a World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) partnership that prioritizes exclusive breastfeeding. The study approaches patient education materials as user documentation and analyzes the materials for kairos and metaphor. The author argued that the materials function as documentation for the birthing parent’s body operating within the system of the BFHI. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and for creating infant feeding resources that provide critical access to the healthcare system by rejecting the body-as-machine metaphor and reflecting families’ diverse situations, not just the situation of the U.S. healthcare system or BFHI.  

Article Details

Section
Research Articles
Author Biography

Jaclyn Wells, University of Alabama Birmingham

Jaclyn Wells is an associate professor of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is co-author of Partners in Literacy: A Writing Center Model for Civic Engagement (2016). Jaclyn’s work has also
appeared in CCC, The Writing Center Journal, Pedagogy, and other edited collections and journals.

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