
Being low-income carries a great deal of stigma in our society; being food insecure as a pregnant woman or mother of an infant carries even more. This can be a problem in urban and rural areas, possibly more so in rural areas, because of the lack of anonymity when accessing services. Of course, stigma can be compounded for pregnant women and new mothers who are also racialized or Indigenous and facing food insecurity.
Stigma is not a neutral force, but rather a force that disrupts the health and well-being of its recipients. It impacts all aspects of health and well-being and the “critical role mothers play in parenting their children.” The concept of a “good mother” is tied up in “intensive mothering,” which is largely inaccessible to lower-income mothers because it is time and resource-concentrated. Sharon Hays, author of The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood, describes intensive mothering as a type of mothering that centers the mother as solely responsible for parenting and its outcomes. It is “child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive.” A recent study on food-insecure mothers describes how stigma is exacerbated for mothers because of the societal role expected of them as providers of food and nourishment and how being unable to fulfill this role leads to feelings of failure, exclusion, and social alienation, especially from other women.
Additionally, while low-income/food-insecure mothers may initiate breastfeeding at the same rate as their higher-income counterparts, rates decline quickly within the first few months. This has health implications for both mothers and infants in and of itself. Returning to the idea of intensive mothering, there follows an “intensive feeding ideology” that is particularly difficult to fulfill for poor mothers of colour. Feeding a family helps to recreate social order, such as class, gender, and racial distinctions, including how we see appropriate mothering and infant feeding. Women unable to fulfill the role of intensive mothers and feeders face undue scrutiny, stigma, and often social isolation.
Social isolation profoundly impacts health, including the risk for depression, and mother-baby dyads are no exception. Women’s identities affect their level of social isolation, such as by age, relationship status, or being from an ethnic minority. To address the social isolation that can stem from stigma for new mothers, one more recent study discusses the need to address ideas of “the good/bad mother” societally, to work for “social change,” and to create more support that considers women’s social contexts.
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