Vaccine Skeptical Mothers in the Upper Midwest and their Kitchen-based Care Practices

Abstract

While many Americans view vaccination and medical intervention as benefits to society and for the greater good, vaccine skeptical mothers not only reject vaccinations but most biomedical interventions as well. In place of biomedical interactions vaccine skeptical mothers here focused on daily care practices centered around a healthy diet and eating whole foods. Further, they then create alternative forms of care that are founded in their kitchens and based on their own expertise as mothers, rather than with the expertise of biomedical experts. Based on nineteen months of in-person and virtual ethnographic research in a mid-size Upper Midwestern city in the United States, this research sheds light on the broader relationships between mothers who reject biomedicine and their caregiving in contemporary America.