英语学界对“母乳不足”现象的认知进化

“母乳最好”的宣传话语在目前育龄人群中几乎耳熟能详,但很多信奉科学育儿、希望母乳喂养的都市女性却发现母乳喂养困难重重,其中遭遇“母乳不足”的案例较为多见。回顾历史发现,“母乳不足”的现象全球普遍存在,这个话题在20世纪80年代的英语学术圈曾引起热议。经过十余年讨论后,学者们基本认同大部分遭遇母乳不足的女性并不是真正的“母乳不足”,而是由于种种社会文化因素干扰造成母乳喂养失败的这一结论,其中产后初期的奶瓶介入是重要原因。术语也由insufficient milk syndrome变为perceived insufficient milk,以此来强调“母乳不足”不是一种病理现象,而更多是一种文化感知。

The Evolved Understanding of “Insufficient Breast Milk” in English Literature

“Breast is best”is a well-known slogan to almost every childbearing woman in cities.While committing to scientific parenting,many women in cities have encountered various difficulties in breastfeeding their baby/babies,among which“insufficient milk”is often the case.“Insufficient milk”is a worldwide phenomenon,and was a highly debated topic in English literature in the 1980s.After more than ten years of debates and discussions,the scholars reached an agreement that most women who suffered from“insufficient milk”were not incapable of producing sufficient breast milk;instead,their failure was caused by various sociocultural factors.An important factor is the introduction of the bottle-feeding during the postpartum period.Hence,the term“insufficient milk syndrome”was replaced with“perceived insufficient milk”to stress that“insufficient milk”is not a pathological phenomenon,but a cultural perception.