Abstract

The Philippines boasts some of the strongest breastfeeding advocacy policies in Southeast Asia, with RA 10028 (the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009),  RA 7600 (the Rooming-In and Breastfeeding Act of 1992), and Executive Order 51 (the Philippine Milk Code of 1986). Still, Philippine figures for the median duration for breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding have floundered below World Health Organization standards. Despite promotion efforts on the side of government and advocacy groups, these rates suggest gaps in addressing—perhaps, even understanding—the challenges faced by breastfeeding parents. I argue that this gap has been partly due to a broad mythification of motherhood in the period following RA 10028 primarily through governmental rhetoric and upper-middle class advocacy. Through a Barthesian semiotic inquiry into the construction of Filipino motherhood and the maternal body as it participates (or does not participate) in the practice of breastfeeding, the discussion reveals ongoing tensions in the construction of maternal identity in the Philippines. The key contribution of this work lies in its critical examination of how breastfeeding’s visual rhetoric navigates the cultural expectations and contemporary demands of motherhood, as well as the complexities of Filipino maternal identity.

Keywords: breastfeeding, semiotics, Filipino motherhood, myth

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64743/MSJT3027