ArticleSociology of health & illness2023
Mothers, milk and mourning: The meanings of breast milk after loss of an infant.
Article in Sociology of health & illness, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human milk donation in Australia: a qualitative study of donors and potential donors.International breastfeeding journal · 2025Article
- Disparities in being able to donate human milk impacts upon maternal wellbeing: Lessons for scaling up milk bank service provision.Maternal & child nutrition · 2024Article
- Mothers, milk and mourning: The meanings of breast milk after loss of an infant.Sociology of health & illness · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Breast milk is a highly valued substance, immunologically and nutritionally, which also signifies maternal care and love for the infant. This intersection of biological and cultural qualities confers breast milk with complex meanings, which necessarily shape the experience of breastfeeding. Our research, investigating the experience of lactation after the loss of an infant, casts a novel light on these meanings. This article analyses the experience of 17 Australian bereaved mothers and 114 health professionals charged with their care. We find that while all the mothers found post-loss lactation emotionally painful, many also found redemptive meaning in their milk-production, as a bond with the lost child, as confirmation of their maternal competence and as a life giving substance that they could donate to other needy infants. These complex meanings and positive connotations were at odds with hospital cultures that regard post-loss lactation as valueless and best dealt with through medical suppression, despite the more complex insights of individual health-care professions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.