Racializing Motherhood and Maternity Care in News Representations of Breastfeeding.

IF 6.3 1区医学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL Journal of Health and Social Behavior Pub Date : 2024-03-05 DOI:10.1177/00221465241235143

Shannon K Carter, Sanya Bansal

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Abstract

Racial inequalities in breastfeeding have been a U.S. national concern, prompting health science research and public discourse. Social science research reveals structural causes, including racism in labor conditions, maternity care practices, and lactation support. Yet research shows that popular and health science discourses disproportionately focus on individual and community factors, blaming Black women and communities for unequal breastfeeding rates. This study examines how scientific reports are communicated to the public through a critical analysis of 104 U.S. news articles reporting research on racial disparities in breastfeeding. Findings show that articles acknowledge unequal treatment within maternity care but justify it by presenting Black patients as overburdening the maternity care systems they use due to low socioeconomic status, welfare dependency, poor family support, and poor health. Through these representations, articles co-construct racialized motherhood and maternity care systems in ways that hide manifestations of obstetric racism and combat social support for systemic change.

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母乳喂养新闻报道中的母性和产妇护理种族化。

母乳喂养中的种族不平等一直是美国全国关注的问题，引发了健康科学研究和公众讨论。社会科学研究揭示了结构性原因，包括劳动条件、产妇护理实践和哺乳支持中的种族主义。然而，研究表明，大众和健康科学论述过度关注个人和社区因素，将不平等的母乳喂养率归咎于黑人妇女和社区。本研究通过对 104 篇报道母乳喂养种族差异研究的美国新闻文章进行批判性分析，研究科学报告是如何传达给公众的。研究结果表明，文章承认在孕产妇护理中存在不平等待遇，但通过将黑人患者描述为由于社会经济地位低下、依赖福利、家庭支持不足和健康状况不佳而导致他们所使用的孕产妇护理系统负担过重来为不平等待遇辩护。通过这些表述，文章共同构建了种族化的母性和孕产妇护理系统，从而掩盖了产科种族主义的表现形式，并打击了社会对系统变革的支持。

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来源期刊

Journal of Health and Social Behavior Multiple-

CiteScore

6.50

自引率

4.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a medical sociology journal that publishes empirical and theoretical articles that apply sociological concepts and methods to the understanding of health and illness and the organization of medicine and health care. Its editorial policy favors manuscripts that are grounded in important theoretical issues in medical sociology or the sociology of mental health and that advance theoretical understanding of the processes by which social factors and human health are inter-related.