Breastmilk as Agentic Matter and the Distributed Agencies of Infant Feeding

A Speculative Ethics for Designing with Bodily Fluids

“…In addition to the potential ongoing emotional labor that might result [7], there is an additional tension within wanting research to spread and make impact, and yet not knowing the reach of its impact. My feelings of discomfort were (and still are) heightened by unknown rhythms and temporalities of breastfeeding through milk as agentic matter [11]. This understands breastfeeding as a process that cannot be fully controlled, and that is constantly changing and in fux.…”

“…Furthermore, approval must be obtained before research begins. This is particularly difcult relative to the uncertainties of breastfeeding [11] and parenting [16], whereby it can be difcult to know and plan in advance what might be genuinely needed now in caring for loved ones. These guidelines can be seen to prioritize bodily fuids in scientifc knowledge production as merely data about human bodies, rather than accounting for a diversity of lived realities and agencies that warrant such data meaningful [62].…”