Protagonista da amamentação ou instrumento da política de saúde infantil?: A enunciação da mulher nos materiais oficiais de promoção e orientação ao aleitamento materno

Abstract

This article examines recent promotion and guidance materials to breastfeeding produced by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, identifying similarities and differences between the discourses aimed at pregnant and lactating women, and those directed to health professionals in relation to the proposed meanings about women. Based on the theory of enunciation, we identified that, while the self or subject of enunciation is still present in the analyzed discourse (identified as Brazilian Ministry of Health), significant distinctions persist in the approach of the women’s role. In manuals for health professionals, in which the woman is the subject of whom it talks about, she is commonly represented as an individual with subjectivity who is the protagonist of the process. On the other hand, in materials aimed at women, we observed that, in general, they are treated in an objectified way, revealed through a normative and imperative language, which qualifies them as an instrument of the official policy for child’s health. We argue that understanding how the object spoken is created by/in these discourses, unveiling how positions and power relations are constructed in them, enables us to discuss this communication that generally has neglected the experiences and expectations of mothers in breastfeeding.