Lactivism as a Resistance Movement: Lactivist (Re)Actions in Mexican Urban Contexts

Abstract

Breastfeeding is approached in this article from the perspective of lactivism, a movement that seeks to promote and make such practice visible in the socio-political sphere of knowledge that has been kept outside the official discourse for a long time. In the last decades, artificial milk has overwhelmingly replaced breast milk, making professionals from different fields suspect that this change underlying a deep biocultural crisis. The factors involved in this alteration of infant feeding during the first few months / years of life are multiple, and the consequences in the human species are conceived as unpredictable. Lactivism conceives human breastfeeding as a practice with biopsychosocial implications, as right and ethical imperative, and is posed as a resistance movement against injustices towards breastfeeding women. From a case study in the city of Morelia (Mexico), two lactivist (re) actions in urban contexts are exposed.