ABSTRACT
This chapter contextualises breastfeeding practices within the frame of a broader child-centred approach to parenting care, with a focus on how parents and midwives regard breastfeeding as a means of communication with infants. The author first elaborates on the concept of the baby as a communicating child, which is fundamental to the holistic care model and the home birth parents’ approach. Then, she explores time-related aspects of breastfeeding and the modalities of on-demand breastfeeding, including night-time feeds. Even if breastfeeding initiation at home is detached from institutional protocols, it is ruled by the linear temporality of neoliberal regimes. This conception thus deeply influences the breastfeeding experience and shapes expectations regarding newborns, who must cooperate by adapting their feeds to the constraints of the industrial temporalities to which their parents are subjected, even in the context of a child-centred care approach. Finally, she discusses other arrangements and practices established to reinforce children’s self-confidence and favour communication, also thought of by parents as linked to on-demand breastfeeding. She particularly emphasises elimination communication, which is considered a tool for strengthening the parent–baby bonds.
