Working to Combat Maternal Guilt and Shame

For many new mothers and pregnant people, guilt and shame are constant companions.  New mothers and pregnant people are constantly judged on their parenting choices from what to eat and drink during pregnancy to whether (and where!) to breastfeed to how to manage their newborns' sleep patterns. These judgments can also affect those who do not identify as mothers but who are seen as mothers by other people.

This constant guilt and shame is bad for mothers and those seen as mothers and bad for gender equality!

We would like to revise the way we think and talk about maternal behaviour, reducing the pressure on new mothers/ parents seen as mothers and pregnant people.

One way we do this is by using our Philosophy of Pregnancy, Motherhood and Parenthood research - pointing out that often the judgments we make about new mothers involve philosophical mistakes.

But we would love to hear from any other groups working towards the same goal.

A summary of my work in this area can be found in our REF2021 Impact Case Study.

​For a list of blog posts, interviews, etc on guilt, shame and judgment about how we feed our babies, see here.

We received funding from the ESRC IAA for our project Combatting Guilt and Shame Surrounding Infant Feeding Decisions: translating social science research into web-based resources for new mothers and the health professionals who support them.  The project used my research and the research of Heather Trickey to produce downloadable and online materials to help new mothers and practitioners explore guilt and shame surrounding infant feeding.  This led to the Feeling Good About How We Feed Our Babies Website and a short animated video.

For news of our response to recent proposed changes to Dutch law increasing state powers to intervene when pregnant women smoke or abuse other substances see here.  (The article was originally published in a Dutch newspaper.  An English translation is available here.)

We held a workshop on The Breastfeeding Dilemma on the 23rd March 2016.  This workshop brings together academics, policy makers, medical professionals, parental support organisations, members of the media, mothers and members of the public to address the Breastfeeding Dilemma:  how do we encourage breastfeeding and support women in doing so, without subjecting those who choose not to breastfeed, or are unable to do so, to shame and guilt with potentially devastating consequences?