Social theory and infant feeding

Clinicians, public health advisors, nutritionists and others have been attempting to increase breastfeeding rates for the last few decades, with varying degrees of success [1]. However, health-related behaviours do not occur in isolation: by recognising the importance of social circumstances we can improve our understanding of infant feeding, thereby improving our ability to increase breastfeeding in our communities.Social scientists can teach us about infant feeding behaviour. Biological anthropologists have compared humans with other primates to estimate the natural duration of breastfeeding in humans [2]. McKenna and colleagues have also used nonhuman primate data, cross-cultural studies and physiological studies to examine the natural ecology of mother-infant sleep [3]. A recent symposium on evolutionary anthropology has further explored this new area of research [4]. Other social scientists have contributed to our understanding of breastfeeding in the context of women's lives [5-9]. Our recent thematic series 'Infant feeding and HIV: lessons learnt and ways ahead' highlights the multiple challenges that HIV-infected women, infant feeding counsellors and health systems face in translating policy - in fact, changing policies - into practice [10]I recently read the work of some researchers in the area of food and nutrition who have found Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework to be helpful. Warin and colleagues explain "To place food in social context resonates with Bourdieu's (1979/1984) study of food and social class in France. In Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgement and Taste, Bourdieu argues that food and eating is much more than a process of bodily nourishment: it is an elaborate performance of gender, social class and identity" [11] (p. 98). Danielle Groleau and Charo Rodriguez have found some of Bourdieu's concepts helpful in interpreting their ethnographic interviews of disadvantaged French-Canadian mothers [12]. In this editorial, I aim to int