素食母職的營養實作：母親責任與個人價值的協商

Abstract

自宣告懷孕伊始，女性便面臨著揮之不去的召喚：依循社會期待成為一名「稱職的母親」。社會對母職的想像，對女性在孕期及產後的生活型態有著不可忽視的影響；尤其對於素食者而言，主流營養學的論述造成個體在飲食選擇上的拉扯：應該維持自身的素食慣習，或迎合家庭及社會認知，攝取肉類以提供孩子更好的營養？ 本研究對14 位台灣素食母親進行半結構式訪談後指出：現今科學尚未有足夠的證據定論素食母親會因營養不足而致危害孩子，實際上，是受主流葷食價值影響，社會建構的母職標準—供給有肉飲食才能予以孩子健全的營養—使得素食女性在母職實踐的過程遭受最大的困境。然而，素食母親雖受到規訓，卻也能發展出多樣性的母職策略，並跳脫主流母職標準，重新建構屬於他們的素食母職，包含強化孩子的素食營養與延續素食至孩子。

Based upon semi-structure interviews with 14 Taiwanese vegetarian mothers, this article claimed that mothering can be challenging especially for those who adopt vegetarian diets. People cast worries and doubts claiming the “unbalanced” diets would jeopardize mother’s health and as a result, do harm to the offspring during pregnancy and lactation. However, what seems “unbalanced” to these women is the pressure arising from dealing with the conceptions that vegetarian diets are irresponsible and inappropriate for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers and their children. Many of these vegetarian women still struggle with striking a balance between living up to social or family expectations for mothers and sticking to their own personal beliefs to opt for a vegetarian lifestyle. In this frame work, vegetarian women reframe the social normative (non-vegetarian) value through the practices of their own (vegetarian) mothering.