210 JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES Volume 15, Issue 3, December 2009 M ost published materials concerning infant care of women in non-Western societies have given little attention to the subjective expe- riences of mothers in relation to their social posi- tions and how they see themselves as a parent and their difficulties and risks entailed in rearing chil- dren within the social and cultural context of their mothering roles. However, there are few exceptions. Unlike most studies on childrearing and child care, Scheper-Hughes (1987) under- took an interesting study on mothers’ emotional responses to their children’s health and conditions in a poor and changing society of Brazil. Her work is a classic example of the importance of examining the ways mothers make sense of their children’s illnesses and the impact on their emo- tional responses, and hence, the ways they care for their ill children within the context of pover- ty. Her findings pointed to the importance of the social and economic context of women’s lives. The expression of maternal sentiments and the cultural meanings of mother love and child death are constructed within the mothers’ ‘experiences of attachment, separation, and loss’. Scheper- Hughes (1987) alerted us to a luta, ‘a unifying metaphor of life, a struggle, between strong and weak, or between weak and weaker still’. This culturally constructed concept allows mothers to ‘explain the necessity of allowing some, especially their very weak – babies to die a mingua, that is, without attention, care, or protection’. She sug- gested that ‘maternal thinking and practices are socially produced rather than determined by a psychological script of innate of universal emo- Copyright © eContent Management Pty Ltd. Journal of Family Studies (2009) 15: 210–226. Motherhood, risk and responsibility: Infant care in Northern Thailand PRANEE LIAMPUTTONG PHD * School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne VIC, Australia ABSTRACT The cultural construction of childrearing and infant care in northern Thai society is discussed on the basis of in-depth interviews with 30 women in Northern Thailand. The results indicate that Thai mothers observe and practise many socially and culturally acceptable tasks to ensure the health and wellbeing of their infants. These beliefs and practices tie them not only with their family and their society at large, but also the supernatural world. Mothers see themselves as responsible parents and hence follow numerous rules to avoid risks which may pose threats to the health and wellbeing of their infants. This attempt is used as a means to prove that they are good and moral mothers. Keywords: childrearing; infant care; Thai mothers; Thai culture; risk and responsibility * Correspondence to: Professor Pranee Liamputtong, School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia. Email: pranee@latrobe.edu.au